THE TEACHER'S HANDBOOK
TO THE
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE;
CONTAINING
THE LESSONS WITH FOOT NOTES,
AND
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
BY CHARLES BAKER,
Head Master Of the Yorkshire Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.LONDON:
WERTHEIM AND MACINTOSH, 24, PATERNOSTER ROW;
VARTY, 3, ADELAIDE STREET, WEST STRAND;
AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
1857.
PREFACE
When the Circle of Knowledge was published in 1847, one of its objects was to bring within the scope of a school book those neglected, but useful and familiar things, which are generally overlooked in the ordinary instruction of children. This intention was expressed in the following paragraph of its preface.
"The subjects chosen for the lessons are such as all children are interested in, such as they continually ask questions upon, and such as are illustrated in popular works, which are easily accessible to teachers and parents. It has been a main object to exclude everything that might be considered cold and lifeless, to create an interest for C0MMON THINGS, and every-day life, and to make all the lessons natural and animating."
An impulse has been given to the acquisition of information on matters of familiar life, by the institution of prizes of considerable amount, to be awarded to students, for certain attainments, and to Schoolmasters and Schoolmistresses, for success in teaching the knowledge of Common Things. These prizes were instituted by Lord Ashburton in December 1853, and are to be competed for annually. The example of his lordship has been followed by others.
Soon after the intentions of Lord Ashburton became known, the Author of the Circle of Knowledge received several communications from Schoolmasters and others, urging him to bring that work under his lordship's notice. This suggestion was complied with; and Lord Ashburton acknowledged the receipt of the Reading books and Manuals, saying that "he bad already possessed himself of those designed for the scholar ;" and adding, "we sadly want some plain formula appealing to common sense, which shall distinguish the things to be taught from things not to be taught. If you would turn your knowledge and experience to the establishment of such a rule in the minds of teachers, you would confer an inestimable benefit on society."
It has recently occurred to the Author that his own experience may suggest a. course which will be found advantageous, though it may fail to "establish a rule in the minds of teachers." It is his practice when conveying a lesson to his pupils, to extend its details, to inculcate principles, to bring out feelings and sympathies congenial to the subject, or to create an interest by means of an illustration, a specimen, an experiment, or a description; adopting one or more of these means in accordance with the character of the lesson. Thus the better feelings of the pupils are sometimes engaged, while the intellect is generally exercised. Each lesson is thus taught to the pupils, not merely read by them. Text books are necessary in every school, but they cannot supply all that the pupils require, nor can they supersede the necessity for preparation on the part of a teacher, however well stored his mind may be on ordinary subjects.
Additions may be grafted on any Text book, and the FOOT NOTES appended to the present Edition of the Circle of Knowledge will serve to suggest. how gush additions may be made by every teacher. Questions are also given on these Notes which cannot always be answered by a glance at the text to which they refer, but which, in some instances, require thought and the exercise of the reasoning powers.
Many of the additional subjects touched upon in the Foot Notes bear immediately upon objects connected with the daily interests of COMMON LIFE. Among these are the notes on PHYSIOLOGY, showing the construction of the human frame - the necessity for fresh air and ventilation - the importance of personal cleanliness for allowing the pores of the skin to fulfil their office - the evils of impeded respiration - and those arising from the absorption of noxious vapours.
In DOMESTIC ECONOMY, notice is drawn to the components of food - the comparative nutriment afforded by different kinds of grain and other food plants - the fermentation of bread - and the causes which operate to advance the price of food and other articles.
On the ECONOMY OF LABOUR, attention is directed to the effects of a cessation of work in any large branch of National Industry, and the consequent failure both of wages and of supplies of the article, by which all classes suffer, but the poor most. The principles of the DIVISION OF LABOUR, and of demand and supply are explained, and moreover it is shown that machinery is beneficial to all classes of the community, by causing cheap production.
In AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY, the formation of mineral soils and the purposes of tillage are explained - also the importance of improved agricultural tools, and implements to facilitate labour. It is also shown that we must depend on foreign countries for many of our articles of daily consumption.
In order to obtain some idea of the information afforded by the Foot Notes, the reader is requested to glance at the succeeding four pages, headed "Lessons and Contents of Foot Notes."
The Index at the end of the volume will make reference to any portion easy, whether in the body of the Lessons or in the Foot Notes, while the words of which the derivations are given, are also distinctly marked.
It is, however, quite clear that no collection of Lessons, nor set course of instruction, can be provided to carry out Lord Ashburton's suggestions in their integrity - that no modification of existing books, nor series of new books, can give the proposed value to the work of education. The formula must be established in the teacher's mind - so that he may turn to some useful account, not merely the points of interest most attractive in his lessons, but the incidents of the day, of the seasons, of the town or village, and those connected with the pursuits of the neighbouring population.
The spirit of the Dean of Hereford's "Suggestive Hints" ought to be the spirit of the teacher's mind, and that book should be read and studied, and its principles duly applied. It must be remembered that its modest title implies that these "Hints" are to be carried further than the matter and extent of the work indicate; and they will be thus carried out and applied by all those teachers who take the trouble to make them their study, for they present numerous and varied examples of the kind of information a teacher should possess, as well as an admirable method of imparting it to children.
LESSONS AND CONTENTS OF FOOT NOTES.
Subject - - - Lesson Number
I. Objects ... Paper-making-Pins-Hats ... ... ... 1
Creatures ... Sap-wood-heart-wood-Reason and Instinct ... 2
Human Beings ... Why we are accountable-Thought and Labour ... 3
II. The Head... The Brain-the Nerves-Sensation-Motion ... 4
The Face . . . The Eye-its Defences-the Nostrils-the Mouth ... 5
The Trunk ... The Spine-Use of Cartilage ... ... ... 6
Upper Limbs . . . Freedom of the Arm and Hand ... ... ... 7
Lower Limbs Strength of the Lower Limbs... ... ... 8
The Joints . . . Their various movements-Synovia... ... ... 9
Bones, Muscles, &c. . . . Component parts of Bone-Action of the Muscles ... 10
Heart, Lungs, &c. . . . Circulation and Purification of Blood ... ... 11
Sustenance, &c. ... Digestion--Causes of Indigestion-Repose ... ... 12
Actions of Body . . . The Aorta-Vital Actions-Ventilation ... ... 13
Actions of Body . . . Voluntary and Involuntary Actions-Cleanliness ... 14
Stages of Life . . . Duties of the Chief Periods of Life ... ... ... 15
III. Animal Food . . . Component parts of Food-Effect of Cooking ... 16
Animal Food... Supply of Poultry-Fish abundant and nutritious ... 17
Vegetables . . . The Cabbage kind-Components of the Potato ... 18
Grain Plants... Comparative Nutriment of Grain-Constituents of... 19
Fruits . . . Fruits-Water in them-Effects of Cultivation ... 20
Condiments . . . Prices regulated by Supply and Demand ... ... 21
Appetite . . . Source of Food-its Variety-Why Its cost varies ... 22
Drink . . . Causes of Thirst-Evaporation-Condensation ... 23
The Farmer . . . Draining-Improved Implements necessary... ... 24
The Farm. . . Formation of Soils-Effect of Crops-Manures ... 25
Purveyors . . . The Miller, &c.-Yeast-Adulteration of Bread ... 26
Purveyors . . . Our Dependence on Foreign Productions ... ... 27
IV. Men's Dress . . . Raw Materials-The Cotton Pod to the Shirt ... 28
Women's Dress . . . Evils of Tight Lacing- Division of Labour-its Effects . . . 29
Materials of Dress . . . Bleaching-Dyeing-Dyeing Materials ... ... 30
Makers of Dress . . . Tanning Process-Tannin-Straw Plait ... ... 31
Cleanliness . . . Pores of the Skin-Retention of Heat-Bad Air ... 32
V. Dwellings . . . Early Dwellings-Rise of Towns ... ... 33
Building Materials . . . Timber, Stone, Bricks, Iron, Glass ,&c. ... ... 34
Occupations . . . Advantage and Convenience of a Division of Labour ... ... 35
Building Trades . . . Increased Production from Division of Labour ... 36
Furniture. . . Evils of Short Supplies-The Poor suffer most ... 37
The Contractor . . . Plans of a Building-Scale-Drawing... ... ... 38
VI. School . . . Reading the Path to Knowledge ... ... ... 39
Learning . . . Elements of Learning-Knowledge of Things ... 40
Plays of Boys . . . The Educational Use of Toys and Games ... ... 41
Plays of Girls . . . The Educational Use of Toys and Games ... ... 42
VII. Kind. of Animals.. . Vertebrated Animals-The Mammalia ... ... 43
Mammalia . . . Teeth and Tusks of Mammalia ... ... ... 44
Domestic Quadrupeds. . . Social Animals only domesticated ... ... 45
Beasts of Prey . . Walking of Tiger Tribe-Bear Tribe-Man ... 46
Wild Animals. . . Colours of Animals-Hand of the Elephant and Giraffe . . .47
Wild Animals . . Crutches of Walrus-Feet of House-Fly and Walrus . . .48
Clothing of Animals. . . Felting Property of Wool-Its Staple-Furs ... 49
Peculiarities of Animals . . The Monkey-the Sloth-the Bat . . . . . . 50
Actions of Animals . . . Passions of Animals-Fear, Anger, Cruelty &c ... 51
Motions of Animals . . . Movements of the Kangaroo-Opossum-Whale ... 52
Haunts of Animals . . . The Ornithorynchus- its Conformation and Habits . . . 53
Habits of Animals . . . Teeth of Carnivorous and Herbivorous Animals ... 54
Social Habits of Animals . . . Oxen-Horses-Llamas-Beavers, &c. ... ... 55
Labouring Animals . . . Services of the Hedgehog-the Mole-the Fox ... 56
Uses of Animals for Food . . . Constituents of flesh-Loss of Weight in Cooking . 57
Uses of Animals for Food . . . Difference in the Flesh from Locality
. . . 58
Uses of Animals for Clothing . . . History of the Rise of the Alpaca Manufacture
. . . 59
Sundry Uses of Animals . . . Substances used by Man-Arts Animals Pactise60
VIII. Birds . . . Why a Bird is able to Fly61
Kinds of Birds . . . Characteristics of Birds62
Peculiarities of Birds . . . Food of Birds-their Localities .. 63
Peculiarities of Birds . . . Analogies between Birds and Beasts..64
Plumage of Birds . . . Adaptations of Plumage in Substance-Colour . . .65
Nests of Birds . . . Man's Skill Acquired-that of Birds Natural . . .66
Voices of Birds . . . Expressive Cries of Birds ... 67
Migrations of Birds . . . Why? Unknown-The Passenger Pigeon . . . 68
Uses of Birds . . . Plumage Oily-Geese-plucking ...69
IX. Reptiles . . . Temperature of Reptiles-Activity of Serpent.. . 70
Peculiarities of Reptiles . . . Cruelties to obtain Tortoiseshell-the Chameleon...71
Fish . . . What Fishes do not want-What they have. . . 72
Uses of Fishes . . . Chief Fisheries of Great Britain. . . 73
X. Insects . . . Diversified Construction of Insects... 74
Changes of Insects . . . Insect States of Existence...75
Uses of Insects . . . Value of Silkworms-of Bees-of Cochineal ... 76
Worms and Shells . . . Uses of Worms-Worm-Casts--The Leech ... 77
Uses of Worms . . . The Nautilus-The Clio-Shells ... 78
XI. Kinds of Plants . . . The Three Great Divisions of Plants ... 79
Trees and Shrubs . . . Conifers-Hard-Wooded Trees - Mahogany ... 80
Forest Trees... Pine Forests-Teak-Fancy Woods ... 81
Corn Plants . . . Produce and Consumption of Wheat ... 82
Garden Produce . . . Gardens of the Rich-Market Gardens-Allotments ... 83
Medicinal Plants . . . Drugs. &c, obtained from Plants ... 84
Garden Flowers . . . The Parts of a Flower ... 85
Ferns, Mosses, &c. . . Cryptogamic Plants ... 86
Uses of Plants . . . Food Plants of Different Climates ... 87
Uses of Plants . . . The Bread Fruit-The Banana-Cacao ... 88
Varieties in Vegetables . . . Uses of Leaves for Drawing Lessons ... 89
Growth of Plants . . . How Plants are Multiplied ... ...90
XII. Divisions of Land . . . Geological Formations ... 91
Tracts of Land . . . Steppes, Prairies, Llanos, &c., Mountains ... 92
Collections of Water... Great Divisions of the Ocean ... 93
Changes in Water . . . Phenomena of the Ocean ... 94
Substance of the Earth . . . Stratification of the Earth-Soil ... 95
Earths and Salts . . Constituents of Soil ... 96
Metals ... Properties of the Precious Metals ... 97
Combustible Minerals. . . Coal-fields-Working of Mines ... 98
Uses of Metals . . . Why Iron is Cheap in Great Britain ... 99
Precious Stones . . . Less Valuable than Common Earth ... 100
XIII. Kingdoms of Nature... Use of Classification-Nature ... 101
Animal Substances . . . Furs, Wool, Silk, Cochineal, Catgut ... 102
Vegetable Substances. . . Vegetable Imports-Teak, Mahogany indigo ... 103
Resins and Gums . . . Resinous and Gummy Secretions of Plants... 104
Roots and Oils ... Oils yielded by Plants ... 105
Mineral Production... Origins of Coal ... 106
Waste Materials . . . Saving of Materials formerly lost ... 107
Materials of little Value . . . Perfumery, &c., from Gas Refuse, &c. ... 108
Nothing is Useless . . . Economy Is Nature ... 109
XIV. The Earth and the Universe . . . Convexity of the Earth-Magnitude of the Sun ... 110
The Poles . . . Apparent Motion of the Heavenly Bodies ... 111
Motion of the Earth... Rotation of the Earth ... 112
The Equinox and Solstices. . . The Equator-Ecliptic-Equinoxes, &c.... 113
The Moon . . . The Light of the Moon reflected Light ... 114
The Atmosphere . . . Proportions of Nitrogen and Oxygen in the Air ... 115
Meteors . . . Clouds-Electricity-the Electric Telegraph ... 116
XV. Divisions of the Day ... The Equal Distribution of Light and Darkness-Refraction .... 117
Divisions of Time . . . The Day not Dependent on the Son-Regularity of the Earth's Rotation ... 118
Months and Seasons... The Year and the Calendar... 119
Years and Centuries... Provisions of Magna Charta ... 120
XVI. The Cardinal Points ... The Loadstone-The Mariners Compass ... 121
The Equator and the Zones . . . Humboldt's Zones ... 122
The Torrid Zone . . . Characteristics of the Torrid Zone... 123
The Frigid Zone. . . Characteristics of the. Frigid Zone... 124
The Temperate Zone... Characteristics of the Temperate Zones ... 125
Inhabitants of the Zones . . . Characteristics of Mankind... 126
Climates ... Temperatures-Modes of Observing them ... 127
Productions of Climates . . . Dissemination of Seeds and Plants ... 128
Productions of Climates . . . Progress of Vegetation ... 129
Productions of Climates . . . Maize, Wheat &c-their Limits ... 130
Productions of Climates . . . Limits of Barley ... 131
Productions of Climates . . . Man as an Agriculturist ... 132
XVII. Domestic Relations ... Government of the Family ... 133
Trade and Agriculture . . . The Intelligent and the Mechanical Workman ... 134
Tradesmen, Mechanics &c. Mutual Dependence-Mutual Trust ... 135
Divers Employments... Labour-its Rights and its Benefits ... 136
Professions ... Professional Labour ... 137
Buildings of a Town... Rise of a Manufacturing Town ... 138
Gas .. ... Illuminating Powers and Impurities of Gas ... 139
Water ... Water-its effects on Plants-on Animals-on Health ... 140
Fire ... ... Process of Combustion ... 141
Ventilation ... Evils of a Polluted Atmosphere ... 142
Roads and Railway.. . Inland Communication-Railway Traffic ... 143
XVIII The British Nation ... Races of Men under British Rule ... 144
Evil-doers ... Crimes-Wrongs-Young Offenders ... 145
Trial by Jury . . . Office of the Jury-Causes of Crime ... 146
War ... .. National Calamity of War ... 147
The Army and Navy . . . Expense of the Army & Navy-Cost of a Man-of-war... 148
Money ... Medium of Exchange.-Coins-Decimal Coinage ... 149
Property . . . Real and Personal Property-Wages... 150
Taxes ... Taxation Necessary-its Principle ... 151
XIX. Europe and Asia. . . Characteristics of Europe and Asia... 152
Africa and America...Characteristics of Africa and America ... 153
Savage Nations . . . Picture of Savage Life ... 154
Barbarous Nations . . . Eastern Australians-Feejee Islanders-Negroes ... 155
Half-civilized Nations . . . Aptness of the Taheitians ... 156
Civilized Nations . . . The Unity of the Human Species ... 157
XX. Commerce . . . Inland Communication a Commercial Necessity ... 158
Exports and Imports . . . The Occupations of Mankind ... 159
Ships.. . . Progress of Shipbuilding-Steering of Ships ... 160
Machinery . . . What is Machinery doing for us? ... 161
Language . . . The means of apprehending & communicating thought ... 162
History . . . Modern Discoveries verify Sacred History... 163
Newspapers and Books . . . Wide Diffusion of the means of knowledge ... 164
Self-improvement . . . Self-elevated Men ... 165
XXI. Divisibility of Matter . . . Modes of Divisibility ... 166
Indestructibility of Matter . . . Decomposition and Recomposition ... 167
Attraction ... Discovery of a General Law of Nature ... 168
Properties of Matter.. . The Laws of Physics ... 169
Motion ... Different kinds of Motion-First Movers ... 170
Form ... Acquisition of a knowledge of Form-its Value ... 171
Magnitude ... Illustrations of Magnitude and Minuteness ... 172
Measurement . . . Estimating Distances by the Eye ... 173
Colour ... Why we do not See Double with Two Eyes ... 174
XXII. The Lever . . . Illustration, of the Power of the Lever ... 175
The Lever . . . Law Discovered by Archimedes ... 176
The Wheel and Axle . . . The Wheel a Lever-The Ratchet Wheel ... 177
The Inclined Plane, &c. . . . Zigzag Roads up Hills-The Oil Mill ... 178
The Screw, the Pulley . . . Minuteness and Accuracy attainable by the Screw ... 179
Mechanical Contrivances . . . The Fly Wheel a Regulating Power ... 180
Mechanical Power . . . Some Foreign Manufactures superior to our own ... 181
Mechanism in Nature . . . Ideas derived from Natural Objects ... 182
XXIII. The Sight . . . Fallacies of the Sight ... 183
Hearing and Speech... Whispering Galleries-Ear of Dionysius ... 184
The Taste and Smell . . . Fallacies of the Taste and Smell ... 185
Feeling or Touch . . . Fallacies of the Touch ... 186
Use of the Senses . . . Moral Education of the Senses ... 187
Health ... How Sanitary Laws are Violated ... 188
Bodily Defects . . . Efforts of Voluntary Benevolence ... 189
Diseases ... Causes of Disease-Modes of Prevention ... 190
Death ... Causes of Death-Syncope, Asphyxia, Coma ... 191
XXIV. Eternity of God . . . Archbishop Tillotson and Dr. Clarke on Eternity ... 192
God Unchangeable . . . Dr. Jortin on Immutability ... 193
God Almighty . . . Abp. Leighton and Dr. Paley on Omnipotence ... 194
God Ever Present . . . Dr.Clarke, Seneca, Leighton & Paley on Omnipresence ... 195
God All-wise and Good . . . Abp. Leighton and Dr. Paley on Divine Wisdom, &c. ... 196
God Perfect . . . Burkett, Bp. Hall & Tillotson an Divine Perfections ... 197
God Merciful and Just . . . Bishop Beveridge on Divine Mercy and Justice ... 198
God a Spirit... Dr. C. Clarke on God's Spiritual Nature ... 199
God to be Honoured... Bishop Wilson on the Duty of Honouring God ... 200
MANUAL EDITION.
THE Compiler of the Circle of Knowledge wishes it to be understood that the Explanations and Questions added to this Edition are not intended to supersede the effective remarks and examinations of intelligent and experienced teachers, but that they are prepared as an aid to pupil-teachers, young governesses, mothers, and "those to whom teaching is only an occasional occupation."
The Explanations in Gradation I. are as short and simple as the nature of the subject will allow; those of Gradation II. are longer, and comprise a little more knowledge than the lessons contain; those of Gradation III. are of a higher character, and, in most instances, the words explained are traced to their derivatives. All the etymologies that are unmarked, as Anglo-Saxon, Greek, Hebrew, &c., are Latin.
The Questions in the First Gradation are to a great extent literal and suggestive; if the pupils questioned have made the information their own in the words of the lesson, it is as much as can be expected; and answers, pretty nearly in those words, are all that should be required; such answers are an evidence of attention, hard enough to secure, from children who are learning to read. In the Second Gradation illustrative matter is brought to bear upon the subjects of the lessons, so as to break the monotony of an exact adherence to the words of the lessons and to Induce the pupils to think. In the Third Gradation the questions are generally of such a character as will thoroughly test the amount of knowledge acquired, neither mechanical on the one hand, nor suggestive of the answers on the other, except when leading to a part of a subject on which more important questions are to follow; the object being to ascertain that the pupils possess an intelligent knowledge of the lessons.
In all the Gradations the Questions occasionally turn upon the information conveyed in the Explanations. It has not been considered necessary to employ reference types, as the explanations and questions are placed in juxtaposition with the lessons.
In the present Edition such illustrative matter as a Teacher would give orally is added to each lesson. While avoiding as much as possible technical terms and dry facts, many important principles-bearing on COMMON THINGS, are explained, and reference is made to good authorities, some of which are quoted at length, and others condensed. The Questions upon the Foot Notes, in some instances, contain additional exemplifications on the subject of the lesson, and are designed to impart that practical understanding on each subject which must be the result of real knowledge.
It is hoped that the books quoted will be of some service to the Teacher in enabling him to select works for his own and his school library.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE.
SECTION I. INTRODUCTORY.
All things that we can see, whether they be above us, or beneath us, or around us, are objects. However much they may differ in form, in size, in colour, or in situation, we may call them all objects. Thus a stone, a book, a tree, a bird, a horse, a pin, a leaf, a star, a hat, and many other things are objects.
Some objects are natural and others are artificial. Natural objects are those that have been created by God; artificial objects are those that have been made by man. The stone, the tree, the bird, the horse, the leaf, and the star are natural objects; but the book, the pin, and the hat are artificial objects.
Artificial objects are all made from natural ones. Thus a book, which is an artificial object, is made of paper, but paper is made from rags, and rags from plants. A pin is also made by man. Pins are made of brass wire, coated over with tin. The brass is made of copper and zinc, and is therefore a mixed metal: the grain tin is also a metal; both the brass and the tin are obtained from minerals, which are natural objects. A hat is an artificial production. But hats are covered with fur from the beaver, with silk from the silkworm, with cotton from the cotton-plant, or with some other natural materials.
Some objects are endowed with life, others are lifeless; a hat, a stone, a leaf and a star are all lifeless, but a tree, a bird, and a horse have life. All artificial objects are life-less. God alone, who created all things, can give life to whatever he will.
PAPER MAKING. PINS. HATS.
a book - paper - rags - the rags are reduced by means of water and grinding, in a beating machine, to a pulp a little thicker than cream, to make white paper. This pulp, consisting of fine fibres, flows from a vat into a strainer, to keep back knots, straws, &c.; it then falls as from a weir, upon an endless wire frame, the constant vibratory motion of which unites the fine fibres, and strengthens the pulp into paper, while the water drains off at the same time; the sheet thus formed passes through felted rollers to the drying cylinders, and is wound upon a reel as dry, smooth paper. Any fibrous vegetables, such as nettle stalks, grass, and straw can be converted into paper; though linen and cotton rags, and the sweepings of cotton mills, are preferred.
Pins - hats - The process of making pins illustrates the division of labour; and that of hat-making shows how an artificial fabric, silk, is substituted for the natural fur of the beaver. Knights Cyclopedia of Industry.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 1.
Objects - from objicio, objectum; ob, against., and jocio, to cast., to lie; a thing lying against, or near us.
Differ - from dis, asunder, and fero, to bear; meaning literally, to bear away, to separate; hence, to be unlike in nature or qualities.
Situation - from situs, position.
Natural - naturalis, from natura, nature, deduced from nascor, natus, to be born.
artificial- from artificialis (ars, artis, art, and facio, to make); made by the art or skill of man.
Created - from creo, creatum, to form, to produce; applied to giving a commencement to the existence of anything.
Paper - from papyrus, the name of an Egyptian plant, the flower-stem of which was used by the ancients to write upon; the Greek word is papuros, said to be derived from pao, to feed, and pur, fire, from the use of the plant as fuel.
brass-from braes (A.S.), a mixed metal of copper and zinc; about one-third of its weight being zinc.
Copper - supposed to be derived from Cyprus, an island where Cyprian brass was made; the metal is orange-red; the chief copper mines of England are in Cornwall.
Zinc - zink (Sw. and Dan.), a bluish- white metal, of great use in the arts; it is also called spelter.
tin-(A.S.) a metal of a brilliant white tinged with gray; its chief mines are in Cornwall.
Mineral - from minera (low Lat.), or min (Heb.), from, and eretz (Heb.), the earth; a matrix,or vein of metals.
Production - from produco, to lead forth (pro, forth, and duco, ductum, to lead); a thing made, or brought forth.
Fur - (Fr. forrrure) the fine hairy covering of some animals.
Beaver - from befer (A.S.), an animal which yields a very soft fur.
Silk-worm - the caterpillar of the silkworm moth, whose cocoon is silk.
Cotton-plant - the plant of tropical countries which produces cotton wool. It is curious that the name given to the first clothing worn by man is, in Hebrew, "cotnot."
Endow - from dower (Fr.), to give a dowry; the word is derived from the Latin, and this from the Greek.
QUESTIONS 1.
What does the word "object" mean?
Mention an object of which there are many of different sizes.
Mention two objects of different colours.
What are natural objects?
Mention some artificial objects,
What materials are used in making paper?
From what natural objects are these materials derived?
Then is paper a natural object?
Is a pin a natural or an artificial object?
Whence are all our materials derived?
Who has supplied them?
Whence do we obtain fur?
Whence do we obtain cotton?
Tell me some objects that are endowed with life.
Tell me some natural objects that have not life.
Who gives life?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Describe the process of paper-making.
Why are the rags reduced to pulp?
How are they thus reduced?
Why does the pulp flow into a strainer?
Why is the wire frame made to shake?
For what purpose is the paper pressed?
For what is it passed overheated cylinder?
Why is it cut into sheets?
What kinds of substances can be converted into paper?
What idea do you attach to the phrase, "division of Labour"?
Has this mode of production any ad. vantages-and what are they?
What does the business of hat-making show us?
Can we apply this fact to any useful purpose?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
All things that have been created by God are creatures. The name creatures is generally confined to the brutes, but it is equally applicable to all the works of God, whether they are animate or inanimate. Thus a stone, a star, and a leaf are creatures as well as a horse, a bird, and a tree.
Some creatures are beings, others are only things. Those creatures that are endowed with life are called beings; thus a man, horse, a bird, and a plant are beings. Those creatures that have no life are things; thus a stone, a star, and a leaf are things. Beings are also distinguished from things by their being organized. Thus a tree is a being because it has organs which serve to nourish its parts, and to increase its kind, but a leaf is a thing, because though it has life when connected with the plant on which it is produced, it withers when separated, and has no means of nourishment nor of increase.
Some beings are rational, and others are irrational. Rational beings are those that are gifted with reason, and that can trace cause and effect through several steps.
Irrational animals are endowed with passions, with consciousness, and with instinct. They can seldom join more than a single cause with a single effect. Thus monkeys know that fire warms them, and they love to bask in the warmth; but they cannot reason so far as to add fuel to keep a fire from going out. The instincts of animals are without error; birds build nests, and sit on eggs, and other animals perform instinctive acts without instruction or experience, and without knowing why they perform them. Men and angels are rational creatures. Brutes and inanimate creatures are irrational.
Rational beings are moral agents. Irrational beings are devoid of moral sense altogether.
SAP OF TREES. SAP WOOD. HEART WOOD. REASON AND INSTINCT.
Organs to nourish - The roots of trees absorb much fluid from the soil. In spring, when the sap is rising, if tree be wounded through the bark, the sap will flow out of the wound in large quantities. Thus the sugar-maple is tapped, and its fluid made available for the manufacture of sugar. The ascending sap flows through the newer layers, called sap-wood, which, year by year, harden, and become heart-wood. As the sap-wood soon decays, only heart-wood is used as timber. The sap is distributed through the branches of trees to the leaves. Carpenter's. Vegetable Physiology.
Rational - irrational - instinct - Man has instincts for food, for defence, &c., but most of his acts proceed from reason. A bird builds its nest from instinct, without experience, or teaching. A man builds a house from reason - that is, he knows why be builds it. That which a dog, an elephant, or a horse learns to do, is not instinct, any more than that a child learns to read from instinct.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 2.
creatures - from creo, creatum, to create; all created beings and things.
Animate - from anima, breath, life, air; having life.
Inanimate - from in, not, and anima, life; not, having life.
Beings - from beon (A.S.), to be, exist, to stand, remain, or be fixed - hence to continue; as any living thing.
Distinguished - from di, from and stinguo, stinctum, to prick or mark; i.e., to mark or notice the peculiarities of a thing so as to know it from others.
Organized - from organon (Gr.), an instrument; having parts or organs fitted to perform peculiar functions or duties, thus, the limbs are the organs of motion, roots are organs for nourishing plants.
Rational - from reor, ratus, to think, to reason, to draw inferences.
Irrational - from in, not and reor, ratus, to reason.
Passions - from patior, passus, to feel, to suffer, deduced from patho (Gr.).
Consciousness - from con, with, and scio, to know; the knowledge of sensations, and of what passes in the mind.
instinct - from in, in, and stinguo, stinctum, to prick or thrust; that is, thrust in, or infixed; it is a power in animals which makes them do what is necessary for preserving life.
Error - from erro, errars, erratum, to wander, to make a mistake, to go astray.
Instruction - from in, into, and struo, structum, to build; teaching, what is taught.
Experience - from ex, out of, and perior, peritus, to try; a number of trials making skilful. Experience applies to trials which have taken place within a person's own knowledge.
Moral - from moralis, orderly, derived from mos, moris, manner; walking according to prescribed rules.
Agents - from ago, actum, to act to lead; one who leads or acts.
QUESTIONS 2.
What do you mean by the word creatures?
To what creatures is it generally applied?
What creatures are called beings?
What creatures are not beings, but things?
How are beings also distinguished from thing.?
Why is a tree a being?
What are the organs of motion in animals?
What do you mean by rational beings?
With what feelings and power, are the lower animals endowed?
Can they reason like rational beings?
What does instinct enable them to do?
Men learn how to build - are birds instructed how to make their nests?
What is the difference between instinctive and rational acts?
What beings are rational, and what beings are irrational?
What do you mean by moral agents?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How do the roots of trees obtain their nourishment?
When does the sap rise in trees?
How could the sap be made to flow out?
Is this fact turned to any good account?
How - for the production of sugar?
What is the wood called through which the sap flows?
Why is it not good for timber?
What workmen require this kind of knowledge?
Can you tell me why the sap circulates through the leaves?
Tell me the difference between reason end instinct.
Give an example of an instinctive act in man.
Give one of one of the lower animals.
If an elephant picks up a shilling with his trunk, is that an instinctive act?
Give me an example of a rational act.
SECTION I. INTRODUCTORY.
All mankind are human beings. They are creatures, because they have been created by God; they are beings, because they are endowed with life; they are rational, because they can join two or more causes, and two or more effects together; and they are moral agents, because they know what is right from what is wrong.
Human beings consist of a body and a soul. Our bodies are very curiously and wonderfully made. They are composed of skin, flesh, fat, bones, blood, and other substances. They receive nourishment from food, and from drink, and are capable of growing in size and in strength. Thus a youth is both bigger and stronger than a child, and a man is bigger and stronger than a youth.
Human beings live longer than most plants or animals; but they must die. Our fathers and forefathers are dead, we and those who come after us must die also; and thus one generation goeth and another cometh in constant succession.
The soul is the seat of knowledge, of desire, and of feeling. It is by means of our souls that we know more than the brutes that perish, that we desire things we have never yet beheld, and that we sympathize in the troubles, and participate in the joys of our fellow-creatures. It is by our souls that we may learn what is right and what is wrong; and it is because we are endowed with souls that we are accountable for our actions.
Although men are capable of knowledge, yet when they are born they are ignorant. We begin to learn almost as soon as we begin to breathe; but it is only those who improve their opportunities of studying, of observing, and of experience that make any important progress in knowledge, or become of benefit to society.
WHY WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE. THOUGHT LEADS TO PRINCIPLES.
moral agents - infringements of the moral law constitute immoral conduct, and as moral agents we are accountable to God for all our thoughts, words, and actions; while, as members of society, we are amenable to the laws of the land, which we could not be if we were not moral agents.
capable of knowledge - our capacity for knowledge enables us to serve our species, and the more we acquire the better we shall be able to serve them, and thus to serve ourselves. In all acts and employments thought is necessary as well as labour; those who labour without thought are mere machines. Thought and reason lead a man to understand certain laws and principles which make labour easy. It is this combination of thought and labour which has supplied us with tools, implements, and machines, and with skill to use them. A man who has learned to lift a clod of earth with a spade, has also learned that a block of iron or wood, too heavy for his unassisted strength, may be moved by a lever.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 3.
Human - humanus, from komo, man.
Rational - from reor, ratus, to draw inferences, to reason.
causes - from causa, that which produces. Probably derived from casus, that which happens.
Effects - from e, out of, and facio, factum to perform, make; that which is produced.
Moral - from moralis, orderly; derived from mos, moris, manner; walking according to prescribed rules.
Agent - frcm ago, to do; one who is an active doer.
Wrong - from wring-an (A.S.), to wrest or twist; turning from the straight line of duty.
curiously - from cura, care; carefully and artfully executed.
Wonderfully - from wundror (A.&), to turn; i.e., the head this way and that, in order to comprehend.
Fat - from fedan (A.S), to nourish; hence fat, or fat, that which nourished the body.
Blood - from blaedan (A.S.), to bloom, blush, or grow red; the vital fluid derives its name from its colour.
Capable - from capio, captum, to take; able to take hold of, receive, or comprehend.
Generation - from genus, generic, family, kind; one family succeeds another.
Succession - from sub, under, and cedo, cessum, to go; to follow in order.
Brutes - from brutus, stupid or irrational; the lower animals.
Sympathize - from syn, sym, together, and pathos (Gr.), to feel or suffer, to feel pain or pleasure mutually.
Participate - from pars, partis, a part, and capio, cepi, to take, to take a part of a thing common to others.
Society - from socius, a companion; society is the companionship of many, whose separate interests unite in promoting the general good.
QUESTIONS 3.
What are human beings?
Why are they called creatures?
What other beings are endowed with life?
Whit mental qualifications have human beings?
What is a moral agent?
How are our bodies made?
Name their component parts.
What do our bodies derive from food and drink?
What do you learn from the fact that one generation succeeds another?
Give examples of things that follow each other in constant succession.
Of what powers and affections is the soul the seat?
What kind of creatures perish?
What is it that makes human beings superior to the brutes?
In what part of the human being does the power at knowing right and wing reside?
Why are human beings accountable?
By what means only can we make progress in knowledge?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What do you mean by the Moral Law?
What do you mean by an infringement of the Moral Law?
Mention several offences which are infringements of it.
To whom are we accountab1e for such acts?
To what other laws are we amenable?
Why?
Distinguish between a moral offence and a legal offence.
Distinguish between a fault and a crime.
Give me an instance of the mode in which we serve ourselves by serving other.
How is man different to a machine?
What good has the combination of thought and labour done for society?
Why is the man without knowledge inferior to the thinking and instructed man?
Can you understand your lessons if you not thinking of them?
SECTION II. THE BODY AND ITS PARTS.
The human body consists of three principal parts - the head, the trunk, and the limbs. These may be again divided into, the bones, the muscles, the fat, the skin, &c.
The bones compose the skeleton, the muscles constitute the flesh, the fat is a soft pulpy matter beneath the skin, and the skin is the covering of the whole.
The highest part of the human body is the head. in most animals the head projects beyond the forelegs, and is placed looking downwards, but in man it is planted above the whole frame, and turns in every direction.
The frame-work of the head is a strong arch, which gives protection to the brain. This arch is divided into the forehead, the crown, the occiput, and the sides. The skull has eight bones in all. These bones are united either by irregular tooth-like edges which fit exactly into each other, or by one part overlapping another so as to ensure strength and stability.
The skull is occupied with the brain, which is divided into two equal parts called hemispheres. Connected with the brain is the spinal cord, which runs through the whole length of the back-bone. From the brain and the spinal cord proceed the nerves, which are so thickly distributed over the surface of the body that the finest needle could not be inserted into the skin without wounding one or more of their innumerable branches.
The covering of the head consists of hair, which takes root in the skin, and grows as long as it receives nourishment.
Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the height of his forehead, and the volume of his brain. He ought therefore to be distinguished by the intelligence of his mind, and by the nobleness of his actions
PHYSIOLOGY - THE BRAIN AND THE NERVES.
the head - In man its erect position is worthy of notice; in quadrupeds a robust cartilage running from the middle of the back supports the weight of the head.
the head a strong arch - Eight bones form the skull. If it were formed of one bone only, blows upon it would be felt throughout the whole skull, which are now chiefly felt at the part struck.
The brain - It weighs from two to three pounds; it is generally allowed to be the organ by which the mind acts.
the nerves - Are small whitish cords which radiate from the eye, the ear, and other organs of the senses; some of them proceed from the spinal marrow. When the nerves are injured by disease their power ceases. One set of nerves carries impressions to the brain which are sensations, another set gives motion to the muscles. Thus in some diseases sensations are felt without the power of motion, or the power of motion is uninjured while the sense of feeling is destroyed. Carpenter's Animal Physiology.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 4.
Head - probably from heafod (A S.), heafan, to heave or lift up; the head being heaved above the body.
Trunk - from truncus, trunk of a tree, the main stock; the body without the bead and limbs.
Limbs - from limpian (A.S.), to belong to; the arms and legs belong to the body.
Muscles - from musculus, supposed to be derived from mus, the muscle, a shell-fish; the shape of the two objects being similar.
Skeleton - from the Greek verb skello, signifying to dry.
Pulpy - from pulpa, the fleshy pert of meat; soft and tremulous.
Whole - from halian, or gehalian (A.S.), to unite or heal breaches.
Projects - from pro, before, and jacio, jactum, to shoot; the head shoots out or forwards.
Frame - from fremman (A.S.), to form or make.
Arch - from arceo, arcui, to bold in; hence arcus, a bow, the ends of which are held in.
protection - from pro, for, and tego, tectum, to cover; a covering for defence.
Crown - from corona, the top or highest
Occiput - the hinder pert of the head - from ob, over against (back of), and caput, the head.
Skull - from skiola (Icelandic), the head.
Brain - probably from bregma (Gr.), the top of the head, deduced from brecho, to moisten, because that part of the bone is longest in hardening.
Hemisphere - from hemisus, half, and sphaira (Gr.), a globe.
Nerves - from neuron (Gr.), a nerve, a string; a man well nerved is a man well strung, or a strong man.
Branches - from brachium (Lat.), an arm.
Volume - from volvo, volutum, to roll; anything rolled up; applied to bulk or quantity.
Nobleness - from nobilis, famous, excellent; or moral dignity.
QUESTIONS 4.
Which are the three principle parts of the body?
Of what different substances are these parts composed?
What pert is formed of bones?
What parts constitute the flesh?
What is the fat?
What integument covers the whole?
In what respect is the head differently placed in man and in the other animals?
For what purpose is strength given to the arch of the head?
What is there peculiar in the fit and formation of its bones?
With what important organ is the skull occupied?
How is the brain divided?
Explain the meaning of hemisphere.
What substance passes from the brain through the backbone?
Whence do the nerves proceed?
How do we know that their branches are very numerous?
Whence doss the hair proceed?
How is man distinguished from all inferior creatures?
How ought man also to be distinguished?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How is the head of man placed differentiy to that of quadrupeds?
What provision is made to support the heads of quadrupeds from falling?
What evil would result from the skull of man being formed of a single bone?
How is this evil avoided?
Why is the brain thus carefully pre served?
What is the appearance of the nerves?
Whence do they radiate?
How are the nerves injured?
What is the consequence?
What is the peculiar office of one set of nerves?
What is the office of another set?
In paralysis, which nerves are injured?
Which are injured in casa of deafness, blindness, want of smell, taste, or touch?
SECTION II. THE BODY AND ITS PARTS.
The organs of sight, of smell, of taste, and of hearing are all situated in the face, and communicate with the brain.
The eye, which is the shape of a ball, is composed of fluids of three qualities, and is covered with three layers or coats. The principal parts of the eye are the pupil, the iris, the cornea, the crystalline lens, and the retina. The eye is defended from the light and air by the eyelid, from dust and insects by the eyelashes, and from perspiration by the eyebrow. Tears are formed within the eyelid, which keep the eye moist and clear. The nose is formed at its upper part by a firm arch of bone, and at its lower part with a flexible cartilage, by which it is divided into two equal parts. The two openings at its lower extremity, called nostrils, are lined inside with the apparatus for smelling, called the olfactory nerves. The mouth, which comprises the lips, the teeth, and the chin, unites strength and flexibility for the purpose of speech and of eating. The chief organs of taste are found in the tongue and palate. The ear is the organ of bearing; the outer part collects and transmits the currents of air into the passage which leads to the brain. The passage of the ear is winding, and is defended from dust and insects by small hairs; a waxy substance formed within the ear is also a protection to this organ.
Notwithstanding their general resemblance, the countenances of men are capable of considerable diversity; for besides the varieties observable in their features, there is such an endless variety in expression that no two persons can be found exactly alike.
The expression of the face often shows the temper or prevailing disposition of a person.
PHYSIOLOGY - THE EYE, ITS DEFENCES. THE MOUTH, ETC.
Fluids - The aqueous, which is nearly pure water; the vitreous, which resembles thin jelly; and the crystalline, which is like thick jelly.
Three layers - The sclerotic, the choroid, and the retina. (See Explanations 183)
The eye defended - Excess of light is injurious, but there is a provision by which its admission may be regulated, not by the eyelids only, but also in the pupil, which contracts when the light is too strong, and dilates when it is insufficient.
Nostrils - So situated that when the air is charged with odorous particles, which ascend, some of them are delayed in the nostrils by the mucous secretion upon the olfactory nerves.
Mouth - Admirably adapted in its mechanism both for the mastication of food and for the rapid and distinct production of articulate sounds.
General resemblance - Nations have a national cast of countenance, as the Jews, the Germans, the Hungarians; still nearer resemblances are found in families, yet the distinction of individuals can always be established.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 5.
Face - from facies, derived from facio, facere, to form, assume; the human face is capable of various forms, expressive of the feelings.
Communicate - from communico (communis, common), to make common, to impart, to reveal.
Composed - from con, together, and pono, positum, to place; to set or place in order.
Fluids - from fluo, to flow, to run as water.
Qualities - from qualis, of what kind; the constituent parts of things.
Pupil - from pupilla, pupil of the eye, derived from pupa, a puppet, a doll; because figures are reflected small in the pupil.
Iris - from iris (Lat.), rainbow; so called from its resemblance thereto in form and colour.
Cornea - from cornu, a horn; the horny part of the eye.
Crystalline - from krustallos (Gr.), ice; stone, &c.; .substances made hard, like ice or glass.
Lens - means a lentil, and is so named from its resemblance in form to the shape of a lentil, viz., convex.
Retina - from re, back, and teneo, tenere, to hold, retain; the retina gives back the impression of objects, and retains them.
Perspiration - from per, through, and spiro, spirare, to breathe; the moisture emitted through the pores of the skin.
Nose - from naes (A.S), a promontory; hence Sheerness, Dungeness, &c.
Flexible - from flecto, flectere, flexum, to turn or bend; the quality of bending.
olfactory - from oleo, to smell, and facio, factum, to make; the organs which perceive smells.
Comprises - from con, together, and prehendo, prehensum, to take; laying hold of.
Collects - from con, together, and lego, lectum, to gather up; to gather together.
Transmit - from trans, beyond, and mitto, missum, to send; to send forward.
Expression - from ex, out, and premo, pressum, to squeeze out, i.e., the image, as it were, of the mind on the countenance.
QUESTIONS 5.
What organs are situated in the face?
With whet part do they communicate?
Name the principal parts of the eye.
What are the offices of the eyelids and eyelashes?
Of what use are tears?
Describe the formation of the nose.
By what nerves are the nostrils lined?
What does olfactory mean?
Name the different parts of the mouth.
What operations are assisted by the strength and flexibility of the chin?
In what members does the taste reside?
What services are performed by the outer parts of the ear?
With what organ is the ear-passage connected?
How is it provided for defence?
What sort of resemblance exists in the countenances of all?
What peculiarity distinguishes one countenance from another?
What do you understand by the peculiar temper of a person?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Describe the three fluids of the eye.
Refer to the note "eyeball," Lesson 183; and describe the three coats of the eye.
Describe the defences of the eye from excessive light
The teacher should here speak of the effect on the eye on going out of a
Light room into one nearly dark, where nothing is visible till the pupil of the eye has expanded to accommodate itself to the diminished light; he ahould also show how the pupil of the eye contracts and dilates by closing it for a few seconds and then suddenly opening it.
Prove that the nostrils are well situated.
What is the use of the teeth?
What would be the result If the teeth had moveable joints?
Let one of the pupils notice how many words he can utter in a minute by the clock; he will find that he can read nearly 300 word, from a book, or utter, without the book, 400 - What does this prove respecting the organs of speech?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
The skeleton of the trunk consists of the collar-bone, running from shoulder to shoulder; the shoulder-blades, lying nearly fiat upon the back; the breast-bone, reaching from the throat to the bottom of the chest; the spine, reaching from the head to the pelvis; the ribs, of which there are twelve pairs, occupying the upper half of the trunk; and the pelvis, or basin-like bones, occupying the lower part of the trunk.
The collar-bone supports the neck, and preserves the shoulders from falling inwards. The shoulder-blades are provided with sockets in which the arms move. The ribs and breast-bone protect the vital parts, namely, the heart, the lungs, &c. The pelvis receives the thigh-bones in the same way that the shoulder-blades receive the bones of the arm; and the spine, which is composed of twenty-four bones, called vertebrae, curiously connected with each other, sustains the whole.
Through the whole of the vertebrae runs a long hollow tube containing the spinal marrow. A thin layer of cartilage interposed between each vertebra gives a sufficient amount of elasticity to the spine to allow the bones to move, and prevents the hard parts from rubbing against each other. The spine is often distorted, and the ribs compressed by tight lacing; disease then ensues.
The trunk is the seat of the vital organs, and much motion is not required in it. Its parts therefore lie close together, and its joints at the ribs, the breast-bone, and the spine consist merely of the cartilage, a very elastic substance, commonly called gristle, of which the hard but flexible part of the ear is a good example.
PHYSIOLOGY - THE SPINE.
The collar bone - Of service chiefly where the upper limbs are used in taking hold of objects, as it gives freedom of motion; perfect in man, imperfect in the tiger, wanting in herbivorous animals. See page 70 Chambers' Animal Physiology; (an excellent school treatise.)
The spine - called also the vertebra) column, being formed of vertebra; the bones of the spine have a small degree of motion on each other. There are in the neck seven vertebrae, in the back twelve in the loins five, in all 24; these vertebrae possess not only great strength, but great flexibility. "Let any one" says Dr. Paley, try by main force to separate the vertebrae even of a hare or a rabbit, and he wil1 soon learn how firmly they are united."
layer of cartilage - "Were it not for the interposition of this elastic substance, every motion of the body would produce a jar to the delicate texture of the brain, and we should suffer almost am much from alighting on our feet, as in falling on our heads." Sir Charles Bell.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 6.
skeleton - skello (Gr.) to dry and wither; the bony framework of a
body.
Collar - from collum, the neck.
Shoulder - from scylan (A.S.), to divide; the place where the arms divides or
separate, from the body; or from scyldan (A.S.), to shield, cover, protect; hence shelter. The shoulder protects the upper part of the vital organs.
Blades - from blaed (A.S.), a leaf, which these bones represent in form.
Flat - from platos (Gr.), a plane, superficies.
Back - from baec (A.S.), the hinder part.
Breast - from breost (A.S.),a part burst forth, or heaved up.
Chest - rom kiste (Gr.); whence cyst (A.S.), a coffer, basket.
Spine - from spina, a thorn; the prickly-like bone of the back.
Pelvis -from pelvis, a basin, which the hip bones united represent.
Ribs - from rypp-an (A.S.), to rive, or split; the ribs are split or separated.
Supports - from sub, under, and porto, to bear.
Neck - from knecca (A.S.), to bend, or incline, which the neck can do.
Arms - from eorm (A.S.), signifying the limbs in the sense of weapons.
Vital - from vita, probably from biotos (Gr.), that which has life.
thigh - from thic (A.S..), thick; the thick limbs.
Vertebrae - from verto, vertere, to turn; because these bones turn on each
other.
Distorted - from dis, asunder, and torqueo, to twist; hence distortus, mis-shapen, crooked.
Ensues - from ensuivre (Fr.), to follow.
Required - from re, again, and quaero, I ask, or demand; that which is necessary.
Cartilage - from cartilago, gristle; it is smooth, solid, and elastic, and much softer than bone.
QUESTIONS 6.
Enumerate the principal parts of the skeleton of the trunk.
Name the uses of the collar-bone.
How is the motion of the arms provided for at the shoulder-blades?
What services do the ribs and the breast-bone perform?
In what part are the thigh-bones fitted?
What part sustains the whole?
What are the bones of the spine called?
Where is the spinal marrow situated?
Explain the important uses of the layers of cartilage in the spine.
In which of the chief parts of the skeleton is much motion unnecessary?
For what reason?
Are its parts laid loosely or closely together?
What other members receive benefit from the substance called cartilage?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What bone gives freedom of motion to the upper limbs?
In what particular respect?
In what animals is it imperfect or wanting?
Why is it unnecessary to them?
What animals require it?
What are the chief characteristics of the vertebral column?
Give the quotation from Paley on the firmness of the spinal vertebrae.
How are these bones prevented from jamming against each other?
What would be the consequence of the absence of this cartilage?
In jumping from a height, why should we endeavour to alight on the fore-
part of the sole of the foot?
If the leaper should alight wholly on his heels, he will receive a shock through
the whole of the back bone, which, if violent give a jar to the brain.
SECTION II THE BODY AND ITS PARTS.
The upper limbs are the arms - they include the upper arm, the fore-arm, and the hand. The upper arm extends from the shoulder to the elbow, the fore-arm extends from the elbow to the wrist, the hand extends from the wrist to the tips of the nails.
There are in each arm and hand thirty bones; namely, one in the upper arm, two in the fore-arm, eight in the wrist, five in the hand, and fourteen in the fingers. The upper limbs are terminated by a short horny substance, called the nail, which affords both firmness and protection to the extremity of the fingers.
As the upper limbs are formed for active service they have a large proportion of bone and but little fat; indeed they have more bone and less fat in proportion to their size than any part of the body. The thicker parts are made up of muscles and sinews by which great weights may be sustained, and yet of so delicate a texture that the smallest object may be taken hold of. Without the power of the thumb the fingers would be of but little use. The thumb can be brought into close contact with each, and with all the fingers.
Without the hand man could not sow, plant, reap, mow, grind corn, or make bread, he could not make clothing, nor erect habitations. But with it he cultivates the earth, prepares food and clothing, raises cities, uses the pen, the pencil, and the chisel, and is thus enabled to supply his daily wants and to communicate knowledge and thought.
There is an exact correspondence in the two sides of the bodily structure, and by this wise contrivance a natural balance is preserved throughout the frame.
PHYSIOLOGY - FREEDOM OF THE ARM AND THE HAND
The upper limbs - Are not a means of support. The upright posture is necessary for man, to allow him the full use of his hands and arms.
The fore arm - Has considerably less motion than the upper arm; one of its bones is chiefly concerned in the movements of the arm, the other in those of the hand.
Active service - Their construction admits of a great variety of movements united with considerable strength. At the shoulder the ball and socket joint allows free motion in every direction; at the elbow there is not only a hinge joint, but a rotary motion; the wrist has hinge joints with considerable lateral motion, and the knuckles are similarly provided.
Without the hand - "To man, the only animal that partakes of divine intelligence, the Creator has given in lieu of every other natural weapon, or organ of defence, the Hand; an instrument applicable to every art and occasion, as well of peace as or war." Galen.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 7.
Hand - from hend-an (A.S.), to hold.
Fingers - from feng-an (A.S.), to clasp, or fang; the clasping or fanging members.
Elbow - from eln, the arm, and byg-an. (A.S.), to curve or bend; elnboga (A.S.), the elbow.
Wrist - from raest-an (A.S.), to twist; the part by which the hand wrests or twists.
upper-arm - it is of an irregularly twisted, cylindrical shape.
fore-arm - consisting of the cubit-bone, which is connected with the upper-arm, and the spoke-bone, which rolls on the cubit-bone.
Hand - its five bones correspond with the fingers and thumb.
Extremity - from extremus, outermost; or most distant part..
Sinew - from sina (A.S.), a string.
Texture - from texo, textum, to weave, knit.
Contact - from con, together, and tango, tactum, to touch; clos union
Erect - from erigo, to make straight (e, out of; and rego, rectum, to rule).
Cultivate - from colo, cultum, to till the ground.
Earth - probably from eri-an (A.S.), to plough; that which is ploughed up; or from eretz (Heb).
Knowledge - from cnaw-an (A.S), to feel, perceive, know.
Thought - from thenc-an (A.S.), to feel, or think; a mental sensation or perception.
exact - from ex, out, and ago, actun, to drive; i.e., to expel obstructions.
structure - from struo, structum, to build.
QUESTIONS 7.
Give me some particulars respecting the upper limbs.
Row many bones are there in each arm and hand?
How are they distributed?
Why are the fingers terminated by a nail?
Of what substance have the upper limbs a large proportion?
Why does this appear a wise construction?
Of what substances are the thicker parts of the upper limbs composed?
For what purpose?
Explain the suitableness of the upper limb. more fully.
Describe the office of the thumb.
Enumerate some of the operations performed by the hand.
What benefits result to man from the diligent and skilful employment of the hand?
How is the frame naturally balanced?
Can you mention any disadvantages which might result from the want of such a balance?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Name some differences in the limbs of man and those of monkeys.
Why is the upright posture necessary for man?
Why is it unnecessary for other animals?
What is the difference between the forearm and the upper-arm?
Extend your arm and describe circles with it in the air.
What joint allows you to do this?
What joint allows you to strike the front of your shoulder with your hand?
What motion at the elbow-joint enables you to lay down your fore-arm back and front?
What motions have the wrist and knuckles?
What natural weapons of offence and defence have horses? -tigers? -eagles?
-wolves?
Has man any of these weapons of defence?
What has he in lieu of them?
What does this enable him to do?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
The lower limbs are the legs-they include the thigh, the leg, and the foot. The thigh extends from the hip to the knee, the leg from the knee to the ankle, the foot from the ankle to the extremities of the toes.
The bones of each of the lower limbs are thirty; namely, one in each thigh, two in each leg, twenty-six in each foot, and one on each knee, called the patella or knee-pan.
These bones are covered with large and firm muscles, intended to sustain the weight of the whole frame, and to enable it to move from place to place with freedom. The patella is not jointed, but is attached to the other bones by tendons; it lies on the front of the knee, and protects the joint from injury. The foot is an arch supported by the heel and the forepart; the middle seldom touches the ground.
The lower limbs correspond with the upper in many respects, but they do not resemble them exactly. Thus, in each limb the upper part is formed of one bone, the lower of two bones, and the lowest of several. But the leg is not capable of revolving like the arm, neither can the foot fold up like the hand. Then again the knee-joint is protected by a cap, which is not the case with the elbow, and the sole of the foot has the support of a projecting heel, which the palm of the hand does not require. In the upper limbs freedom of motion is requisite to enable man to pursue the arts of industry; in the lower limbs firmness is necessary to support the weight of the body. The two sets of limbs have a general resemblance, but such a specific difference as their respective uses require.
PHYSIOLOGY - STRENGTH OF THE LEGS AND FEET
Lower limbs - Formed to sustain the weight of the body, their parts being firmly attached to each other. Dislocations of the lower limbs are not common.
Muscles - The muscles are so disposed as to give form to the limbs without encumbering them; those which bend the toes are situated in the calf of the leg, their tendons pass beneath the bones of the heel in pulley-like channel; the muscles which move the leg are situated in the thigh.
The foot is an arch - No other animal possesses a heel so formed and situated as to give its body support. The concavity of the sole enables the foot to accommodate itself to unequal surfaces. The strength and size of the foot permit man alone of all the mammalia, to stand for a time on one leg.
a general resemblance - A comparison of the arm, fore-arm, and hand with the thigh, the leg, and the foot; of the hip, knee, and ancle with the shoulder, elbow and wrist, and of the separate parts of the hand with those of the foot, will at once prove the resemblance and illustrate the difference.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 8.
Legs - from lec-gan (A.S.), to support.
Include - from in, into, and claudo, claudere, to shut, to shut in, to comprehend.
Foot - from fet-ian (A.S), to carry or bear; that which bears.
Hips - from hype (A.S.), a heap; or from heaf-an (A.S.), to sustain.
Knee - from gonu (Gr.), knee.
Ankle - from hank-an (A.&), hanged; the bone by which the foot is hanged to the leg.
Toes - from te-on (A.S.), to extend.
Leg - the shin bone and the splint bone.
Patella - a dish or pan; abone in the form of a dish or pan.
Sustain - from sub, under, and teneo, tentum. to bear or hold; to hold under, to bear up.
Weight - from waegan (A.S.), to bear or carry; anything that is borne.
Jointed - from joindre (Fr.), to join; coupled or connected.
Attached - from attacher (Fr.), to bind, to fasten, deduced from ad, to, and tanqo, tactum (Lat.), to touch; fastened.
Tendon - from teino, teinein. (Gr.), whence tendo, tetendi, to stretch out; the stringy end of a muscle.
Heel - from hyldan (A.S.), to curve, or bend; the heel forms a curvature at the end of the leg.
Correspond - from con, with, and respondeo, respondi, to answer or agree; the agreement of one thing with another.
Resemble - from re, again, and simulo, simulare, to make like.
Sole - from solum, the soil; that part which presses on the ground.
Pursue - from per, through, and sequor, sequi, to follow; to follow through.
Arts - from aretι (Gr.), manly skill and strength.
Specific - from specio, to see; appearance; peculiar kind, quality, or distinction.
difference - from dis, apart, and fero, ferre, to bear; dissimilarity, having qualities not common to all.
QUESTIONS 8.
Name the several parts of the lower limbs.
Enumerate the bones in one of the lower limbs.
With what are the bones covered?
What is their special purpose?
How is the patella attached to the knee?
Of what figure is the foot?
By what means are the ends of this natural arch supported?
Is there any resemblance between the upper and lower limbs?
Enumerate some of the correspondences which subsist between the upper part, the lower part, and the extremities.
Name some of the disagreements between the upper and tower limb..
Show that these disagreements are advantageous.
In which set of limbs is the greatest freedom of motion required?
In which set is greater firmness necessary?
What lesson do we learn from their specific difference?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Why are the lower limbs better fitted to sustain the weight of the body than the upper limbs?
How do we know that they are more firmly attached to the body than the upper limbs?
What motions does the ball and socket joint at the hip enable us to perform, which we could not accomplish with merely a hinge-joint?
Where are some of the principal muscles of the lower limbs situated?
What kind of joint has the knee?
What pocket article has a hinge-joint?
What articles in the room have hinge-joints?
What bone is mentioned in the lesson which is not jointed?
Describe some of the peculiarities of the foot.
What separate parts of the lower limbs find their resemblance in certain parts of the upper limb.?
What are their distinguishing differences?
SECTION II. THE BODY AND ITS PARTS.
The different parts of the body are held together by joints, many of which are capable of motion. These joints are about 150 in number; there being 68 in the limbs, 25 in the spine, 24 in the ribs, 82 in the teeth, and 1 in the jaw. Some of these joints never move perceptibly; others are continually in motion.
The chief joints are at the shoulders, the elbows, the wrists, the fingers, the hips, the knees, the ankles, the toes, and the jaw. The joints of the spine have but little motion, except where the head is united to it.
The joints at the shoulder and the hip are spherical, they are commonly. called ball-and-socket joints; because at the head of the arm-bone and of the thigh-bone there is a round knob which fits into a cup-like socket, allowing it to turn in every direction. The joints at the elbows and the knees are hinges; but in order to allow of some degree of freedom in the fore-arm, and in the leg, only one of the two bones is fastened at each end.
The joints at the wrists, the ankles, the fingers, and the toes are capable of moving in two or three directions. The individual vertebrae of the spine have but little motion, but all combined allow of action in various ways. The head has both a hinge and a slide joint; by the former of these it is capable of moving up and down, and by the latter of turning sideways. Each of these movements is independent of the other, and is provided for by the two uppermost vertebrae of the spine. If it were not provided with a hinge, when we wanted to look up or down we muSt invariably have bent our backs for that purpose; and if it were not provided with the slide, when we wanted to look round we must have turned our whole body.
PHYSIOLOGY - CONSTRUCTION OF THE JOINTS.
Held together by joints - The parts of which a moveable joint is composed are bone, cartilage, and ligament. A fluid, called synovia, is secreted near the joints, which lubricates them; it is more slippery than oil, but not oily.
never move - continually in motion - Those of the skull are immovable; those of the teeth are firmly fixed in their sockets; those of the spine have a little motion; those of the ribs have enough to enable the chest to expand and contract in breathing; those of the limbs have free motion.
ball and socket - The socket is much shallower in the shoulder than in the hip; free motion was the design in the one, and firm support in the other.
Hinges - The elbow is a simple hinge joint, for it has no lateral motion.
Fingers and toes - The fingers, toes, and jaw have hinge joints with lateral motion; the wrist has these motions and also a rotatory one. The hand is intended for industrial purposes - to procure food, to weave garments, to construct habitations, and to form and use implements more powerful than itself.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 9.
Held - from heold-an (A.S), to have or keep.
Motion - from moveo, motum, to stir, shake, or move.
Limbs - from limpi-an (A.S.), to belong to; a limb is a part, or member of, or belonging to, the body.
teeth - from teog-an (A.&), to tug; whence toth (A.S) that which tugs, a tooth or tusk.
Aw - (or chaw) from ceowan (A.S), to chew.
Perceptibly - from percipio, perceptum to take up wholly, to seize; i.e., to observe or catch with the eye
Continually - from continuus, unceasing; in succession, from time to time.
United - from unus, one; to make into one, to act as one.
Spherical - from sphaira (Gr.), a globe.
ball and socket - there is a mechanical contrivance of this kind used in telescopes and in other machines, which is also called a ball and socket joint
hinge - from the word hang that by which a door is suspended, and swings.
Individual - from in, not, and dividuus, that may be divided; distinct, separate, single.
Spine - the vertebral column is the most essential portion of the skeleton; it is the centre on which all the bones rest in their various motions, since every effort or shock in any way considerable is felt there.
Combined - from con, with, and binus, two by two; one or more with others.
independent- from in, not, and dependo, dependere, to hang from; not requiring assistance from its fellow.
provided - from pro, for, and video, videre, to see; to look beforehand.
Invariably - from in, not, and varius, changing; without change.
QUESTIONS 9.
What is the total number of joints?
How many joints are there in the several parts of the body?
Have all the joints of the spine one uniform motion?
At what part of the spine is the motive power the greater?
At what part of the frame are the joints spherical?
Why are they called ball and socket joints?
Are the joints at the elbows and knees spherical?
Show me how the hinge-joints move.
By what contrivance is freedom of motion given to the fore-arm and leg?
Have all the joints power of motion in one direction only?
What is the result of the combined though limited movement of the vertebrae?
What member has the advantage of two distinct and differently acting joints?
For what purposes?
Must these joints necessarily act in concert?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What are the parts at a moveable joint?
Tell me several works of art which have moveable joints.
When an artificial joint does not work freely with what is it lubricated?
What provision is there for lubricating our natural joints?
For what is motion in the spine requisite?
What amount of motion have the ribs?
Why is the socket shallower in the shoulder joint than in the hip?
Give some examples of hinge-joints.
For what purposes is the hand admirably adapted?
The ball and socket joint, and the hinge-joint may be exemplified by the bones of a leg of mutton, the one working in the pelvis, the other in the knee.
The spreading out and closing of the fingers will show the lateral motion at the knuckles.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 10. The Bones, Muscles, &c.
The bones are intended to give strength to the body. There are 223 bones in the human body besides the teeth. They are chiefly of three kinds, being either long and cylindrical, as the bones of the legs and arms; or broad and flat, as the bones of the skull; or short and square, as the bones of the spine. The long bones are for motion, the flat ones for protection, the square ones for strength.
The chief bones of the legs and arms are hollow within and contain marrow; the parts which contain the marrow are very compact, though all bone is somewhat porous. The ends of the long bones are enlarged to fit into joints; their texture at these parts is very porous. Most of the bones are pierced through the outside, to allow the blood to circulate in them, and nourish them. One of the substances of bone is gelatine, or jelly, but they are chiefly formed of the earthy substance called lime. When bones are burnt they become a kind of earth, called phosphate of lime.
The muscles are the lean parts of the flesh. Blood runs through them in every direction, and gives them redness. The muscles are fibrous, or stringy. There are about 500 of them in the body. We employ about 100 every time we take in a deep breath. The muscles are bulky in the middle, and compressed into whitish straps or tendons at the ends; by these ends they are held to the bone, and kept in their places. The fat is interspersed among the muscles, generally where one separates from another. The muscles are covered by the skin, which hides their redness, and the circulation of the blood beneath. Whenever a muscle is much used, it increases in size and strength.
PHYSIOLOGY - BONE, ITS COMPONENT PARTS. MUSCLE.
Give strength - It is the bony structure or skeleton which gives stability to the body; without the bones it could have no firmness.
Hollow - Hollow columns are stronger than solid ones if they contain a similar quantity of solid substance; strength and lightness are thus secured.
substances of bone - The two chief are gelatine, and an earthy matter. In childhood the gelatine predominates in the bones; in youth, the two parts are in nearly equal quantities; in old age, the calcareous, or earthy part displaces the gelatinous part-hence the bones of old people are weaker, more liable to fracture, and unite less readily than those of younger persons.
Muscles - Their chief use, with their tendons, is to give motion to the various parts of the body. By one set, flexors, the joints are bent, by another set, extensors, they are straightened. One set of muscles opens the jaw, another set closes it. Nearly every muscle in the body has another that acts in opposition to it. Carpenter's Animal Physiology.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 10.
223 bones - 8 in the skull; 14 in the face; 8 within the ears; 24 in the spine; 26 in the chest; 11 in the pelvis; 68 in the upper limbs; 64 in the lower limbs.
Cylindrical - from kulindros (Gr.), anything round and long.
Square - from quatuor, four; that which has four equal aides and angle.
Strength - from strangi-an (A.S.), to be able, to have ability or power.
Porous - from poros (Gr.), a passage; having small holes or pores.
Circulate - from circulus, a circle; to circulate is to go round and round, returning to the point at which the motion commenced.
Nourish - from nourrir (Fr.),to nourish, deduced from nutrio, nutritum, to strengthen; invigorate, support.
Jelly - from gelu, ice; whence gele (Fr.), frozen, stiffened.
Phospate - from phos (Gr.), a light; a salt of the phosphoric acids; this salt abounds in minerals.
lean- from laenian (A.S.), to macerate, to make thin, reduce; lean is reduced, or made destitute, of fat.
Fibrous - from fibra, hair-like strings.
Bulky - from bulga (Ger.), a swelling; applied to any mass or body that bulges.
Compressed - from con, together, premo, pressum, to squeeze.
Straps - from stroppus, a string.
Interspersed - from inter, among, and spargo, sparrum, to scatter.
Circulation of the - metaphorically spoken of Eccles. xii. 6; alluded to by Plato, "The heart is both the fountain of the veins and the blood, which latter is vehemently impelled through all the members of the body in a circulative progression;" partially discovered by Servetus, a Spanish physician, in 1553, by Cesalpinus in 1569, by Paul of Venice at a later period, and more perfectly by Dr. William Harvey, in London, in 1615.
QUESTIONS 10.
What purpose is answered by the bones?
How many bones are there?
Describe the three chief varieties of bones.
What substance have the hollow bones within them?
What quality is found in all the bones?
How are the ends of the long bones adapted for joints?
How are the bones adapted for the circulation of the blood through them?
Of what substances are bones composed?
By what process are bones converted into phosphate of lime?
What do you mean by the muscles?
About what number of muscles are there in the body?
What apparently trivial act calls 100 of them into use?
What is the office of the tendons?
What substance is interspersed among the muscles?
Whet does the skin conceal from us?
How can we increase the size and strength of our muscles?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
The body has both strength and beauty of form - Whence has it strength?
What gives it its outward form of beauty?
What two objects are secured by the hollow bones of the legs?
What advantage arises from the bones of the legs and arms being hollow?
What are the chief substances of bone?
Why are the bones soft in childhood?
Why are they firm in youth?
Why are they brittle in old age?
What is the chief use of the muscles?
What are the two opposing sets of muscles called?
What are their respective offices?
What muscle is in incessant action while life lasts?
What causes the muscles to increase in power?
SECTIONII. THE BODY AND ITS PARTS.
Lesson 11. The Heart, Lungs, &c.
The heart and lungs are the chief organs of life. The heart is behind the breast-bone and nearly in the centre of the chest, but pointed towards the left side; it is situated between the two lungs, and is protected by the ribs. It is so formed as to receive the blood, to put it in motion, and to convey it to the different parts of the body.
The lungs are situated in the highest part of the chest, one on each side; they are light and full of air-cells, which expand and contract by the action of breathing. When we breathe air inwards, the air-cells open, and the lungs expand, when we breathe air outwards the air-cells close, and the lungs contract.
The blood, which is formed from our food, circulates through the body in two directions. It is carried by a large vein into the first chamber of the heart, called the right auricle; thence it is propelled into the second chamber, called the right ventricle. It then passes through an artery into the lungs, and comes back into the heart. From the lungs it enters into the third chamber called the left auricle; thence it passes into the fourth chamber called the left ventricle. It is distributed by the arteries over the rest of the body, and returns by means of the veins into the heart again. Here the blood is united with fresh materials, and the process of circulation is renewed. The heart dilates to receive the blood from the veins, and contracts to force it into the arteries; these motions partly cause the beating of the pulse. The circulation of the blood through the body occupies about 160 seconds.
While the blood is in the lungs it is purified by the air we breathe; the air passes into the lungs through the wind-pipe, a tube which extends from the mouth and nostrils to the lungs. The blood from the veins is purple when it enters the lungs; but it is there purified by the air, and changed to a bright scarlet, if the air we breathe into the lungs is wholesome.
PHYSIOLOGY - CIRCULATION AND PURIFICATION OF THE BLOOD.
organs of life - The heart-which contains the life-blood, and by means of its forcing pumps and valves circulates it through the body; and the lungs - which receive fresh air to purify the blood which has circulated.
put it in motion - Its structure is muscular; its action gives motion to the blood. uniformly in one direction, for valves so operate as to prevent its retrograde course. It was by observing the disposition of the valves that Harvey was led to discover the circulation of the blood.
full of air cells - Each lung is a tissue of air cells into whih the windpipe conveys the atmospheric air so necessary for respiration; the air breathed outwards is impure, that breathed inwards should be pure - hence if we remain long in close and ill-ventilated rooms, we breathe over again the impure air which has been discharged from the lungs.
two directions - The florid blood from innumerable vessels in the lungs flows to every part of the body; the black blood from the veins of the whole body returns again to the lungs.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 11.
Heart - probably from the old Swedish word horra, or huerra, to move, to be in motion; during life the heart is in constant motion.
Lungs - from lang-en (A.S.), to draw; the lungs draw in the air.
Chest - the cavity in which the organs of vitality are placed.
Expand - from ex, out, and pando, pansum, to unfold; expand is to open wide.
Contract - from con, together, and traho, tractum, to draw; to draw close.
Action - from ago, actum, to move, to do; motion.
Breathing - from breth (A.S.), a drawing in (inspiring) and a driving out (expiring) of the air.
Vein - from vena, derived from ina, the accusative case of is (Gr), a fibre, nerve, muscle; the veins return the blood to the heart.
Chamber - probably from kamara (Gr.), a vaulted room; an enclosed place.
Auricle - from auricula, the diminutive of auris, an ear; so called from its being like the external opening of the ear.
Propelled - from pro, forward, and pello, to drive.
ventricle - the diminutive of venter, belly, stomach; the ventricles propel the blood forwards.
Arteries - from aer (Gr.), air, breath (so called because the ancients supposed that only air was contained in them), and tereo, to preserve, keep, or defend.
Dilated - from dilator, dilatus, to open wide, to enlarge.
Beatinq - from beatan (A.S.), to dash, to strike.
Pulse - from pello, pulsum (Lat.), to strike, is derived the frequentative verb pulso, to strike often, whence pulse, and also pulsation, the act of striking often.
Purified - from pur (Gr.), fire, and facio, to do; metals are purified or refined by fire.
wind-pipe - called the trachea; it extends from the larynx to the tubes by which air is conveyed to the lungs.
QUESTIONS 11.
Where has life its chief seat?
Describe the locality and position of the heart.
Of what is it the reservoir and dispenser to the body?
What are the peculiar characteristics of the lungs?
Describe the action that takes place in the air-cells, and how it is caused?
What organ is the cause of motion to the blood?
Whence is the blood transmitted from the heart?
For what purpose?
Does the blood return to the heart by the same or different channels?
What are the organs for the transmission of the blood to the body.
Describe the several functions of arteries and veins.
What motion sensible to external pressure is partly caused by the action of the heart.
By what channel is the air communicated to the lungs?
What effect has pure air on the blood?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is the peculiar function of the heart?
What are the functions of the lungs?
How is the natural course of the circulation of the blood secured?
What did this provision lead Harvey to discover?
Whither does the air we receive into the wind-pipe pass?
For what purpose?
What is the structure of the lungs?
What evil arises from the breathing of vitiated air?
How is the air of a room vitiated?
Hence - what provision ought all inhabited rooms to have?
What circuit does the florid blood make?
What is the course of the dark blood from the veins?
How does it become florid?
If the blood cannot become florid in consequence of our breathing vitiated air what ensues?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 12. Sustenance and Rest.
The body is nourished by food, and refreshed by sleep. Food is reduced to a soft state in the mouth by the action of the tongue, the teeth, the jaws, and the saliva. It is conveyed through the p/Larynx and the oesophagus - parts of the throat - into the stomach, and is there changed into chyme; from the stomach it passes into the small intestines, and is there changed into chyle. The chyle is absorbed by other organs, and becomes blood, which is poured into the heart. Thus food becomes blood, and imparts nourishment to all the body. Those portions of food which are not converted into chyle, are separated, and conveyed out of the body by the large intestines.
When we require food, the sensation of craving called hunger is felt in the stomach, this sensation is increased by exercise and by a cool temperature. But bodily inactivity and sleep lessen hunger, and in sickness the appetite often fails altogether. Thirst is a desire for liquid nourishment, which is appeased by drinking.
When we feel a sense of weariness in the limbs we can sit, recline, or extend the body to take repose. In sleep we cease by degrees to observe the objects around us, and a want of power is also felt in all parts of the body. At the same time the operations of the senses are not wholly suspended; a cold hand, a loud noise, a sudden light, or a powerful odour, will often awaken a sleeper. During repose, the mind is often actively occupied by dreams - sometimes of a pleasing, and sometimes of a disturbing kind; and instances are not uncommon of persons having walked during sleep, gone into company, joined in conversation, having been all the time unconscious of what they were doing.
PHYSIOLOGY - DIGESTION. CAUSES OF INDIGESTION. REPOSE.
nourished by food - The waste of the body requires that we should take food about three times a day.
reduced to a soft state - If the food is not reduced to pulp before it is swallowed, the stomach has to do the work of the teeth, in addition to its own, which causes it to become disordered. The food is acted upon in the stomach by the gastric juice, and undergoes various changes before the nutritious portions become blood.
imparts nourishment - That is, if the digestive functions are duly performed; too much food taken at once, indigestible food, intemperate habits, the want of exercise, and the breathing of impure air are causes of indigestion.
weariness in the limbs - Standing without motion is only the appearance of repose; sitting and reclining are but partial repose; the body only obtains entire repose when stretched in a horizontal position.
during repose - Voluntary motion is suspended; digestion, respiration, and circulation are going on; the pulse is slower and weaker, but absorption is more active - hence the danger of sleeping in noxious air, near marshes, &c.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS
LESSON 12
refreshed - probably from frysan (A.S.), to cool, or freeze; refrigo, to cool again.
reduced - from re, again, and duco, ductum, to lead.
soft - probably from swefian, sweft (A.S.), yielding; tender and pliable.
Mouth - either from muth (A.S.), to eat, or from munan (A.S.), to tell the meaning.
Tongue - from thing-un (A.S.), to speak.
pharynx - from pharugx (Gr.), the gutlet.
Oesophagus - from oisophagos (Gr.), the gullet; from oio, to carry, and phago, to eat; the tube that reaches from the mouth to the stomach.
stomach - from stomachos (Gr.), the largest of the intestines, formed from stoma, a mouth; the stomach receiving, as a month, the food which passes through the gullet.
Chyme - from kumos (Gr.),juice.
intestines - from intestinus, internal, from inter, within; our inward parts.
Chyle - from kulos (Gr.) exuded juice.
Absorbed - from ab, from, and sorbeo, to suck up; the absorbent vessels suck up fluids.
Imparts - from in, among, and pars, partis, a part or share.
Converted - from con, with, and verto, vertere, to turn or change from one state to another.
Sensation - from sentio, sensum, to know or feel, power of feeling.
Craving - from krafian (A.S.), to beg, desire.
Hunger - from hungrian (A.S.), to desire, or seek.
Exercise - from xc, out of, and arceo, to propel, drive; motion of all the members of the body.
Cool - from celan(A.S), to assuage, to moderate.
Temperature - from tempero, temperatwm, to mingle, regulate; applied to the state of the atmosphere, which is regulated by fixed natural laws.
Inactivity - from in, not, and activus, quick; without quickness.
QUESTIONS 12.
Before nutriment n be obtained from food certain operations have to be performed on it. What is the first operation?
Into what substance is the food changed in the stomach?
Where is the food changed into chyle?
What is the third change the food undergoes?
What service does the blood perform for the body?
What sensation arises from an absence of food?
Tell me some of the conditions under which exercise and cold are both serviceable and injurious.
From those circumstance you infer that extremes are not good?
Then it is possible to be worked to death, and to be frozen to death?
Explain what thirst is.
How does sleep steal on us?
What does the activity of the mind, when the senses are dormant, produce?
Does this mental activity ever affect the bodily organs?
Is the person then responsible for his actions?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How often do we require food?
Why are teeth given us?
To what instruments can you compare them?
What peculiarity in them increases their hardness?
If food is not well chewed what is the consequence?
What evil arises from the stomach haying to do the work of the teeth?
What portions of the food become blood?
Tell me some of the causes of indigestion.
Which is the only position of the body in which it obtains complete repose?
What actions do not go forward during sleep?
What actions are then going on?
Why is there danger from sleeping in a noxious atmosphere?
SECTION II. TUE BODY AND ITS PARTS.
Lesson 13. Internal Actions of the Body.
Action is one of the necessary results of life. The actions of the body and of its different organs are both varied and numerous; and some of them are constantly going on to sustain and preserve life. The food we eat is digested and converted into blood; it then nourishes the body, and promotes life and health. The blood circulates through the arteries, and renews the bones, the muscles, the tendons, and the whole frame, returning by the veins to the heart again. The lungs expand and contract; taking in fresh air, and giving out that which has become impure. The skin, the muscles, the brain, the bone, the fat, wax, tears, saliva, sweat, and all the other solids and fluids of the body are continually supplied by the blood. The operations of the body to supply all these demands must therefore be unceasing.
Not only convenience and health, but even life itself depends upon the regularity with which these functions are discharged. If the action of the heart were suspended, irregular, or deranged, disease would ensue; and if regularity of action could not be restored, disease would increase and end in death. If the action of the lungs were deranged, we should feel difficulty in breathing, which would produce coughing, and if their healthy state could not be restored, consumption and death would most likely follow.
Many other actions are constantly going forward in the body which we cannot see, but which must be maintained in order that we may be in health. During fever, when we take but little food, the body becomes emaciated, because the fat is absorbed by the blood to supply the place of food.
PHYSIOLOGY - THE AORTA. VITAL ACTIONS. FAT.
action-the quantity of blood in an adult is estimated at from 30 to 40 lbs. Between one and two ounces are propelled at each contraction of the left ventricle Into the aorta. The aorta is the great artery proceeding from the left ventricle of the heart; it is the trunk of the arterial system.
Every time the chest dilates in an adult there enters into the lungs about 20 cubic inches of atmospheric air; about 16 inspirations are made in a minute, so that 20,000 cubic inches of air pass through the lungs in an hour.
About one-twenty-fifth portion of the air which has passed through the lungs is carbonic acid, which, if it cannot escape, is sufficient to poison the atmosphere of a room where a number of persons is assembled - hence the necessity of ventilation; want of ventilation sooner produces disease than want of food, of clothing, or of fuel.
The pulse beats, in infancy upwards of 100 times a minute, in youth about 80 times, in middle age about 70 times, and in old age about 60 times a minute; average about 80 times a minute.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 13.
numerous - from numerus, number, and this from nome (Gr.), distribution,
and ereo, I tell, or declare.
constantly - from con, with, and sto, stans, stantis, to stand; with steadiness, regularly,
preserve - from prae, before, and servo, to keep or watch; to be beforehand
in guarding against danger.
Promotes - from pro, forward, and moveo, motum, to move, advance.
Returning - from re, again, and tyrnan (A.S), to turn, bend, wheel; to go
back again.
Impure - from in, not, and pur (Gr.), fire; not purified.
Operations - from opus, opera, works.
Demands - from de, from, and mando, to require.
Convenience - from con, with, and venio, venire, to go, to come; something fit,
suitable, proper, or commodious.
Regularity - from rego, rexi, rectum, to govern or rule; according to the natural rules or laws of health.
Discharged - from dis, from, and carrus, a car or chariot, and ago, egi, actum
to do.
Suspended - from sub, under, and pendeo, pensum, to hang; to stop for a time.
Irregular - from in, not, and rego, to rule or govern; not governed by rules.
Deranged - from de, not, and ranger (Fr.), to set in order; not in order.
Consumption - from con, with, and sumo, sumere, sumptum, to take; wasting or consuming away with disease.
Maintained - from manus, hand, and teneo, to hold; to hold up, as a cause,
a person, an operation.
Fever - from ferveo, to boil or rage, as in the heat or excitement of fever.
Emaciated - from e, from, and macer, lean; to become lean.
QUESTIONS 13.
Mention some actions which are independent of the will.
What relations do those actions bear to animal life?
What organs are indebted to the blood for nourishment?
In what organ would a suspension of action be dangerous?
The inability to restore regularity of action would finally produce - what?
Distinctly explain to me the result of irregularity of action in the lungs.
What complaint is often the consequence of diseased lungs?
What is the meaning of consumption?
What effect has fever on the body?
Explain the cause of this emaciation.
What becomes of the fat?
Then the absorption of the fat, which produces an emaciated frame, tends to
Preserve - what?
And supplies the place of - what?
Can you give me a common illustration of absorption?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What quantity of blood is the body of an adult estimated to contain?
What is the aorta?
How many Inspirations of air are made in a minute?
How many cubic inches enter the lungs at each inspiration?
How many cubic inches of atmospheric air enter the lungs every minute?
What do we learn from this?
Give another fact to show the necessity of good ventilation in rooms.
What are the effects of bad ventilation?
What is the average number of beats of the pulse a minute? an hour? - a
day? - a year? - during a life of 70 years?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 14. Outward Actions of the Body.
Many of the actions of life are outward, and consist of the different movements of the body and its organs. Some of these outward actions are as necessary to life and health as those actions that are inward, and others of them contribute to our enjoyment or comfort.
The body is capable of various actions and attitudes. Thus we can stand erect, stoop downward, sit, or lie down. We can touch, hold, strike, pull, or lift., and perform many other actions with our hands; and we can walk, run, jump, or dance with our feet.
Some actions are called voluntary, others are involuntary. Thus if we intentionally change our attitude, if we move from place to place, strike, run, dance, we perform voluntary actions. But we cannot help seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, unless we shut our eyes, stop our ears, withdraw our hands, close our nostrils. The acts we perform without intention are involuntary; and many of them are not under the control of the will.
The actions essential to life are eating, drinking, breathing, &c. The actions that contribute to health are those which include bodily exercise and cleanliness. Actions which are connected with comfort are those that promote warmth in cold weather, coolness in hot weather, rest in weariness, and ease in pain.
There is no part of the body with which we can express so much as by the hand, accompanied with different expressions of the countenance. With the hands we pledge friendship, demand silence, implore mercy, express displeasure, seek forbearance. The folded arms indicate repose; the uplifted finger apprehension; the raised hands admiration; the dangling arms idiocy.
VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY ACTIONS. EXERCISE. CLEANLINESS.
Voluntary actions - We are sensible that the power to communicate motion to ourselves and to other objects depends on our will; but we are ignorant how our will acts on our limbs to produce the changes we desire. If we wish to rise and walk, a number of muscles are instantly set in motion to fulfil this desire.
Involuntary actions - We have no control over the actions of the heart and lung digestion, nourishment, respiration, absorption, and circulation go incessantly forward, and we cannot resist them by an effort of the will.
Exercise - As our bodies are formed for activity, they must have exercise to maintain them in a state of vigour; robust exercise in the open air develops the muscular power, and stimulates the internal organs to healthy action.
cleanliness - Those persons are most liable to diseases who disregard personal cleanliness; a clean skin, a clean house, and clean furniture, with frequent changes of bed-linen will do much to keep off illness. Fresh air is not only a preventive, but also a remedy for many diseases.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 14.
Actions - from ago, actum, to do; deeds done.
Outward - from ut (A.S.), out, and weard-ian (A.S.), to look, view.
Inward - from in, within, and weard-ian; i.e. to look within.
Contribute - from con, with, and tributum, a tax; so called from the Roman tribes being taxed according to their respective classes.
Enjoyment - from in, with, and gaudeo, gaudere, to rejoioe; rejoicing in possession.
Comfort - from con, with, and fortis, strong, brave, handsome.
attitudes - from aptitudo (low Lat.), formed from apto, aptare, to fit; suitable gesture.
Various - from vario, to make different, to alter; unlike, different.
Stand - from sto, stans, to rest upon the feet in an upright position.
Erect - from erigo, to make straight (e, from, and rego, rectum, to rule); to
set upright from.
Downward - from durne (A S.), down, weard-ian (A.S.), to look down.
voluntary - from voto, volui, to be willing.
Intentionally - from intentio, intention; from enteino (Gr.), to stretch out, to
aim at; as stretch of thought, aim, design.
Place - from platea, a wide space, derived from plateia, broad, wide; hence place gives an idea of extent.
Wearineas - from werig (AS.), fatigue, waste of strength.
Implore - from in, earnestly, and ploro, plorare, to weep, wail, cry out.
Displeasure - from dis, not, and placeo, to please.
Indicate - from endeiknumi (Gr.), to demonstrate, point out.
Apprehension - from ad, towards, and prehendo, prehensum, to take; seizing
on anything.
Admiration - from ad, to, and miror, miratus, to wonder.
Dangling - from dune-hangian (A.S.), to hang down.
Idiocy - from idiotes (Gr.), privacy, peculiarity; applied to persons considered deficient of intellect,
QUESTIONS 14.
Of what outward actions is the body capable?
Name some of the organs of external action.
Illustrate what you understand by voluntary actions.
And what by involuntary actions.
Over what sort of actions has the will no control?
Doe this inability of mental power to control involuntary actions excuse us
from "beholding iniquity?"
Name some of the external actions which are necessary to life.
By what organ can we generally give expression to our wants and feelings?
If you wanted food, and could not speak to ask for it, what would you do?
By what other aid is the significant motion of the hand generally accompanied?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Give some examples of voluntary actions - and of involuntary actions.
If we had to control and regulate the actions of the lungs and heart, what
would be the probable consequence?
Why is exercise necessary for health?
What kind of exercise is best?
What is the effect on the system?
What would be the result of a life without exercise?
How do the majority of mankind obtain this exercise?
Then - labour is a blessing to man?
What is also necessary for the preservation of health?
What do you mean by cleanliness, in its most extended sense?
What is stated with reference to fresh air?
SECTION II. THE BODY AND ITS PARTS.
Life may be divided into four periods - childhood, youth, manhood, and old age.
During childhood we are dependent upon the kind care and the tender affection of parents. The state of infancy, during which children are very helpless, continues two years, when they pass into the latter stage of childhood, which lasts four years. At seven the season of boyhood or of girlhood commences, and extends over a period of seven years. From fourteen to twenty-one is the season of youth, or adolescence, which extends over another seven years. Manhood and womanhood then commence, and during the succeeding ten years, the frame acquires its maturity and strengtb. This state is called the meridian of life; and generally continues till the age of fifty; life then begins to decline. At fifty some people begin to look and to feel old; others retain their health and vigour till sixty, and others till seventy, while some "by reason of strength" live much longer.
In old age man becomes inactive and feeble, and is dependent on others for support and for comfort; the body shrivels, the teeth fall out, the eyes become dim, and the other senses are imperfect. This closing scene of life has been called second childhood.
Life is given us that we may feel pleasure, and do good; activity and happiness usually prolong life; indolence and trouble shorten it. Therefore, in general, the happier a human being is, the longer he lives; the more he suffers, the sooner he will die. He who has reached old age will generally have been both active and happy, because anxiety and bodily suffering shorten the years of man's existence. In order to enjoy life it is necessary to cultivate the mind and the heart.
THE CHIEP PERIODS OF LIFE.
Infancy - two years - About the middle of the second year the bones have obtained sufficient solidity to enable the child to stand and walk.
boyhood and girlhood - The season when the organs of the senses best receive all sorts of impressions, and therefore the time for early education.
Youth - The age when the reflective and imaginative faculties exert most influence, consequently the time for the cultivation of the mind, by means of knowledge, and for the acquisition of a trade by those designed for manual labour, the hands not having attained that rigidity they acquire in after years.
Manhood - womanhood - At this time all increase in height is at an end; the various organs acquire hardness and solidity; the judgment, the intellectual and moral faculties are in full vigour. During this meridian of life the duties of individuals to their families, and to society generally, should be their chief care; and especially such a regulation of life as shall tend to the preservation of their health, for the sake of those dependent on them.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 15.
Periods - from peri, around, and hodos (Gr.), way, march, journey; progressive courses of years, revolutions of time.
Childhood - from cild-had (A.S), the stage which follows birth.
Youth - the word young, from which youth is derived, is geong in the (A.S.)
Old - from eld, elder, derived from ildaau (A.S.), to remain, or last a long time.
Dependant - from de, to, and pendeo, pendere, to hang; hanging to, or resting upon.
Affection - from ad, to, or towards, and facio, feci, factum, to make disposed
towards.
Parents - from pario, peperi, partum, to bring forth young, comes parens, a
parent.
Infancy - from in, not, and fans, fantis, speaking; not the speaking age.
Adolescence - from ad, to, and olesco, to grow up to; as to a standard approaching maturity.
Womanhood - or woof-manhood; the prefix woof indicates the sex to which
the weaving and spinning belonged.
maturity-from maturis, ripe; maturity implies perfection acquired at the
right period.
Meridian - from medius, the middle, and dies, day; mid-day, middle of life.
Happiness - probably from hab-an (A.S.), to have, hold, or possess; that
cheerfulness which arises from the possession of some good.
Indolence - from in, free from, and doleo, dolitum, to be in pain, anxious; indolence is the taking no trouble.
Suffering - from sub, under, and fero, to bear; to endure.
Necessary - from ne, not, and cesso, cessare, to fail; that which cannot be
done without.
Cultivate - from colo, cultum, to trim, dress, prune, or adorn
QUESTIONS 15.
Which are the chief periods of human life?
Describe the state of infancy.
What state succeeds infancy?
By what terms is the next stage distinguished?
What other word is used to express the season of youth?
When does the third period commence?
By what terms do you express this stage?
What does the frame acquire during the first ten years of manhood and woman-
hood?
Explain what you understand by the meridian of life?
Is the decline of life uniform in its commencement in all cases?
What circumstances usually prolong life?
What conditions shorten it?
Why will he who reaches old age have generally passed a happy life?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
When will an infant stand and run alone?
Why is it wrong to set it to stand before that time?
Why is the time of boyhood and girlhood the best for school instruction?
For what purposes is the period of youth most applicable?
When does the body cease growing in height?
What is the state then of the other organs?
What is the condition of the mental faculties at this stage?
What cares ought chiefly to occupy those who are in the meridian of life?
Why is it wrong for the head of a family to indulge in intemperate or other
habits that shorten life?
What is the consequence to a family of intemperance in parents, or carelessness as to the future welfare of their children?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
SECTION III. OF FOOD.
Food of some sort is requisite to sustain life. The inhabitants of hot climates live chiefly on vegetable diet, but in the temperate and polar regions, men eat the flesh of animals to stimulate the circulation of the blood. Those animals that are gregarious, and particularly the domestic animals, supply this want; they are generally docile, and feed principally on vegetables. They are reared in large numbers in civilized communities, and are brought to market to supply the wants of those who live in towns. In summer sheep and oxen are fed in fertile valleys and rich pastures; in winter they are fed with turnips, hay, straw, and oil-cake, and are sheltered in sheds and folds. The flesh of the goat is not much esteemed in this country. That of the pig is highly valued, and is used fresh, salted, or dried.
Many animals that run wild are also highly esteemed for food. Among these in our own country are the deer, whose flesh is called venison, the hare, and the rabbit; but in some countries a great variety of other wild animals are eaten. Our forefathers, the ancient Britons, lived principally on the flesh of animals killed in the chase.
Animal food is prepared in various ways for man; it is cooked before it is eaten, because cooking improves its flavour, and renders it more digestible as well as more nutritious. In warm weather meat is preserved from decomposition by being rubbed or sprinkled with salt, because otherwise it would soon become tainted. Soup and broth are made by boiling or stewing meat and bones, sometimes with, and sometimes without, vegetables.
ALIMENTS. COOKING. SALTING MEAT.
Food - The substances which affords nutrition are obtained from vegetables or from animals; aliments from plants are less nutritious than those furnished by animals; leavened bread is the best of vegetable aliments. The component parts of animal food are fibrin, water and fat; of vegetable food gluten, water and starch.
the domestic animals - It is considered that one pound of beef yields as much nutriment as three pounds of bread.
Cooking - in roasting meat it should be put down to a quick fire, in order to contract the external surface, so that it may retain all its juices; in boiling it should be plunged into boiling water for the same purpose; if put into cold or tepid water, the juices flow from within, and the meat becomes dry, hard, and tasteless.
sprinkled with salt - This process also causes the fibres of meat to contract, the juices to flow out, and the bulk to be lessened, but at the same time it prevents the entrance of atmospheric air, and thus preserves it from taint.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 16.
Requisite - from require, requisitum, to demand; desired, necessary.
Inhabitants - from in, within, and habeo, habitum, to keep or hold in; residents, those who dwell in one place.
climates - from klima (Gr.), formed from klino, klinein, to bend or incline; as though the temperature were regulated by the declination from the equator.
Gregarious -from grex, gregis, a herd; gregarious means of the common stock; gregatus, a keeping together in flocks.
Domestic - from domos (Gr.), house; homely, attached to the house.
Civilized - from civilis, pertaining to a city or citizens, derived from civis, a citizen; that which is in accordance with the social rules of life,
Communities - from con, with or together, and munus, benefit; societies, those who have a common interest.
Market - from merx, any kind of merchandise, hence mercatus,, a place for buying and selling.
Fertile - from fero, fers, fert, to bear, to produce; rich, luxuriant.
Pastures - from pasco, pastum, to feed; cattle feed in pastures.
Sheltered - probably corrupted from shielder, the origin of which is scylan, to cover.
Folds - from feald-an (A.S.), to enclose.
Venison - from venar, venatus, to hunt; the flesh of animals taken in the chase.
Britons - the Welsh are descendants of the ancient Britons.
Diqestible - from dis, asunder, and gero, gestum, to carry; that which may be separated and rendered useful, as food is, by the action of the stomach.
Decomposition - from de, anew, again, con, together, and pono, posui, positum, to place; decomposition formerly signified compounding a second time; it is now used to express the separation of parts.
Salt - from sal, deduced from hals, (Gr.), which in the masculine signifies salt, but in the feminine the sea.
soup-that which is sipped, or supped up. Sip is from sip-an (A.S.), to draw up liquids in small quantities by the lips.
QUESTIONS 16.
Name one of the requisites for the sustenance of life.
Tell me the names of the various kinds of food.
Under what conditions is one kind of food preferable to another?
What do you mean by climate?
What does the flesh of domestic animals supply?
Under what condition would the stimulus which their flesh gives be injurious?
Instance some wild animals whose flesh is valued.
What is venison?
How did the ancient Britons generally procure food?
What circumstances led to this necessity?
Are there any people in the present day
who pursue the same way for supplying their wants?
Does any other creature partake of animal food besides man?
How is man's superiority shown?
Why does man cook his food?
What effect has salt upon food?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Whence are the ailments that sustain the strength of the body obtained?
Which of them are the more nutritious?
Which is the best of vegetable aliments?
What are the component parts of animal food?
What are those of vegetable food?
Why is bread inferior to an equal weight of meat?
Why should meat be put down to roast at a quick fire?
What evil results from putting that is to be boiled into cold or tepid water?
What injury is done to meat by sprinkling it with salt?
What good purpose is effected?
SECTION III. OF FOOD.
Lesson 17. Animal Food. (Continued.)
Much of our food is obtained from the feathered and from the finny tribes. The poultry-yard furnishes a large supply of animal food. Immense numbers of fowls of different kinds are bred in Lincolnshire, in Norfolk, and in Suffolk; nearly every farm in England has its poultry-yard, from which the markets are supplied with barn-fowls, turkeys, guinea-fowls, ducks, and geese. Peacocks were formerly eaten at great feasts, but they are now kept chiefly as ornamental birds. Swans are still considered in some parts as a delicacy. Pigeons also are reared in large numbers for food; and besides these, pheasants, partridges, grouse, woodcocks, and many other birds are shot by the sportsman, and furnish delicacies for our tables. Birds supply us also with eggs.
The waters bring forth abundantly fish for the food of man. Among esculent fish are the cod, the haddock, the herring, the pilchard, the mackerel, the sole, &c. Herrings come in shoals, which are often several miles in length; some are eaten fresh, others are salted and smoked. The pilchard is a fish very like the herring. The pilchard fishery employs some thousands of people, on the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall. Vast numbers of shell-fish, comprising crabs, lobsters, oysters, cockles, muscles, &c., are also used as food.
Some kinds of fish are abundant or in season at one part of the year, and some at another. When fish is most abundant, it is most wholesome. Abundance also makes it cheap.
The turtle is an amphibious animal, which is brought from the seas of warm latitudes. Its flesh and fat are much esteemed by epicures.
THE POULTRY SUPPLY. FISH, ABUNDANT AND NUTRITIOUS.
Poultry yard - Barn fowls and other poultry contain much lees fat than beef and mutton, though they are sometimes fed to an unnatural degree of fatness.
The markets -The demand for poultry would be much greater than it is if the supply were greater, and the cost reduced; this is worthy of the attention of the farmer and cottager, in those rural districts where poultry can have a wide range, and pick up most of their food at certain seasons of the year.
Pheasants - Wild animals generally contain less fat than domestic ones.
Fish - It is correctly stated that the waters of the earth contain not only ample stores of food for mankind, bat an endless variety. There is, however, a common opinion that fish is less nourishing than flesh meat, but if there is any difference it must be inconsiderable. Fish, in general is less rich in fat than the flesh meats of our markets, it consequently contains more fibrin - the lean part of the muscles of most animals. The eel, the salmon, and the herring are examples of fat fisher. The eel contains more fat than muscular fibre.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS
LESSON 17.
Feathered - fether (A.S.), a feather.
Finny - finna (A.S.), supposed to be derived from the Latin pinnae, or pennae, wings, since the fins are to fish what the wings are to birds.
Tribes - from tribus, a tribe or ward; derived from tribus, the dative case of tres, three; so named because the first inhabitants of Rome were divided into three wards or classes.
Farm - from fearmian (A.S.), to provide or supply food.
Barn - from bairgan (A.S,), to defend, to keep safe from injury; buildings for storing agricultural products.
Ornamental - ornamentum, an ornament, derived from ornatum, to adorn; embellished.
Considered - from considero, considare, to view or examine carefully.
Delicacy - from delicium, a delight or pleasure.
Fish - this word is common to almost all the European languages; fisc (A.S.), poisson (Fr.), pesce (Ital.), visch (Dut.), fiskal (Swe.), piscis (Lat.); probably from nephish, the word translated life, Gen. i. 20.
Esculent - from esca, food fit for man; derived from edo, edere, esum, to eat.
herring-from haering (A.S.), the same thing.
Mackerel - its name is probably derived from its spots; macula, a spot.
Coasts - from costa, a side or boundary.
Amphibious - from ampni (Gr,), both, and bios, life; capable of living both on the land and in the water.
Latitudes - from latitudo, breath; derived from latus, broad; latitudes are divisions of the globe distant more or less from the equator.
Epicures - persons of great skill and refined judgment in culinary matters; so called from a pagan philosopher named Epicurus, whose doctrines have been somewhat misunderstood.
QUESTIONS 17.
What tribes of animals contribute much to the food of man?
In what counties are large numbers of poultry raised?
Tell me the names of other birds whose flesh is eatable.
Which of these are supplied by the sportsman?
With what delicacy do birds also supply us?
Whence are other kinds of animal food procured?
What fish visits our shores in shoals?
In what several states ate herrings eaten?
What fish is next in abundance to the herring?
Of what coasts of England are pilchards taken?
Name some of the kinds of shell-fish.
When is fish most wholesome?
What do you discover in the fact that when fish is abundant and cheap it is also the most wholesome?
What is the meaning of amphibious?
Are any amphibious animals esculent?
Whence is turtle obtained?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
In what respect are poultry different to beef and mutton?
How are they fattened?
Why is not the demand for poultry greater?
What keeps up the high price of poultry in some districts?
How might the price be lowered?
What would be the effect of this?
In what districts could cottagers rear poultry at a small cost?
How may we account for wild animals being less fat than domestic ones?
What is stated of the abundance of fish ?
What is the common opinion as to the nutriment afforded by fish?
What is the actual difference between fish and flesh meats?
What is fibrin?
Give some examples of fishes that become fat.
What fish is especially fat?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 18. Kitchen Vegetables.
Vegetables form an article of food, both extensive and varied. They are supplied chiefly from the garden. The garden produces many varieties of vegetables, among which the cabbage kind are of great importance. The different species of the cabbage are so numerous, that some of them are to be found in every well-managed garden throughout the whole year. The larger kinds are used as food for cattle; the smaller for household purposes. The cauliflower and the broccoli are varieties of the cabbage, and may be obtained at almost all seasons.
Spinach, asparagus, sea-kale, artichokes, rhubarb, celery, and lettuce, though less used than the varieties of the cabbage, are grown in most gardens. Parsley, mint, thyme, and many other herbs for seasoning and for salad, are also garden plants.
Of succulent roots the turnip, the carrot, arid the parsnip are the most cultivated. They are all wholesome. The Jerusalem artichoke was much esteemed before the potato became general; it is valuable for its large produce, and also because it will grow in the poorest soil, and will bear the severest winters in the ground, which the potato will not; it is wholesome, nutritious, and savoury; but the potato is now considered the most valuable of all garden vegetables; it is universally cultivated in Europe; and in Ireland it forms the chief food of the peasantry.
Of leguminous or pod-bearing plants the principal are the varieties of the pea and the bean. The Windsor bean and green pea are eaten before the seeds are ripe, and the pods of the French bean and kidney bean are eaten while they are young and tender.
THE CABBAGE. THE POTATO OVER-ESTIMATED.
The cabbage kind - Especially nutritious; when eaten frequently, like all kinds of food rich in gluten, it has a binding or costive tendency - hence the propriety of eating cabbage with bacon.
The potato - More important as a pleasant variety of human food than for the nutriment it affords. The potato, rice, and the plantain have a remarkable similarity as to their constituent parts; lOOlbs of dried potato-meal contain 92 of starch and 8 of gluten - of rice, 92 and a half of starch and 7 and a half of gluten - of plantain, 94 and three-quarters of starch and 5 and one-quarter of gluten. The tribes who live chiefly on these vegetable productions are distinguished by the size and prominence of their stomachs. The Hindoo, who lives on rice, the negro who lives on plantain, and the Irishman who lives exclusively on the potato, are all described as being pot-bellied. This peculiarity is ascribed to the necessity of their eating a large bulk of food, in order to extract from it a sufficient amount of necessary sustenance. Chemistry of Common Life.
Bear - severest, &c. - Saving the expense of digging up and storing them.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 18.
Vegetables - from vegeto, vegetare, to quicken, make strong, refresh; probably from vis, energy, and ago, agere, to act.
Garden - from gyrdan (A.S.), to bind, gird, encircle; an enclosed space girded by a fence.
cabbage-from caput, the head; the term being applied to distinguish this species from those which do not "head."
Managed - from manus, the hand, and ago, egi, to act, to do.
Cauliflower - from kaulos (Gr.), a cabbage stalk; imported into England from Cyprus about 1560; it forms its head in summer.
Broccoli - a plant similar to, but more hardy than, the cauliflower; it forms its heads, according to its variety, in autumn, winter, or spring.
Lettuce - from lactuca, a milky herb. Pliny says that the early Romans knew no other juicy garden vegetable; they therefore called it lactuca.
Mint - from minthe (Gr.)
Thyme - from thumos (Gr.), strength.
Salad - from sallitus, salted.
Succulent - from succus, juice; full of sap, juicy.
Carrot - this plant shows the effects of culture; it is produced from the common wild carrot so frequent about ditches and highways. The root of the wild carrot is small and woody, that of the garden carrot is large and succulent.
Parsnip - corrupted from the Lat. pastinacea; one of the hardiest and most wholesome of the kitchen vegetables.
Potato - a native of South America, first brought to England by Sir John Hawkins in 1563; cultivated by Sir Walter Raleigh in his own garden at Youghal in 1610. The potato disease first appeared in 1845.
Savoury - probably from sapidus, of good taste; from sapio, sapivi, to relish; of pleasant flavour.
Leguminous - from lego, to gather; the plants forming legumes are gathered by the hand.
Pod - derived from a word which means paunch or belly.
QUESTIONS 18.
You have told me some particulars respecting animal food - is there any other sort of food suitable for man?
Enumerate a few of the varieties of the cabbage.
What other vegetables are abundantly raised?
Name a few seasoning herbs.
What do you mean by esculent?
What root preceded the potato in importance?
In what respect is the Jerusalem artichoke valuable?
By what people is the potato made the staple article of food?
Who brought it to England, and when?
How is Sir Walter Raleigh's name connected with the potato?
Enumerate a few of the leguminous plants.
What vegetables are eaten in the immature state?
Of which of the leguminous plants are the young pods eaten?
QUESTIONS ON FOOTNOTES.
What characteristic have vegetables of the cabbage kind?
In what substance are they rich?
Why is there propriety in eating fat meats with cabbage?
Is the potato nutritious?
What three vegetables have a remarkable similarity in their constituent parts?
Which of these constituents is most nutritious?
What are the constituents of potato-meal?
What are those of rice?
What are those of plantain?
What people respectively use these articles of food as their chief diet?
What peculiarity have they all?
To what is it ascribed?
Why do they take so much food?
What especial recommendation has the Jerusalem artichoke as a vegetable for common use?
SECTION III. OF FOOD.
The grain-bearing plants are the principal food of man in most parts of the earth.
In all the temperate countries wheat is grown in large quantities. Rye, oats, and barley will grow, in colder climates. In the hottest climates corn will grow only on the elevated lands, which are cooler than the plains and valleys. But in those countries which are too warm for wheat, Indian corn or maize attains perfection, and supplies man with a large amount of food. An ear of maize is as large as a moderate-sized cucumber, and each grain is the size of a small horse-bean. Indian corn, when ground, is called hominey, and is a cheap and an agreeable food. It is also sometimes mixed with rice. Millet is another grain cultivated in hot climates instead of wheat; it grows somewhat like a reed, the seed is small, round, and light-coloured. The chief grain, however, cultivated in hot climates is rice. Rice must be sown in moist situations, or where it can be copiously irrigated, as it grows best in water.
The labourers of England consume wheaten bread chiefly. In Scotland and Ireland the peasantry use large quantities of oatmeal. The chief corn counties of Britain are in the eastern and southern parts; the western side of the island abounds in grass lands, which feed large numbers of cattle. Corn is supplied from the east to the west of England; cattle are driven from the west to the east.
Vast quantities of corn are imported into those countries where sufficient cannot be grown for the wants of the inhabitants. The shores of the Baltic and the United States of America supply England with large quantities of grain. Egypt is also a celebrated wheat growing country.
COMPARATIVE NUTRIMENT OF GRAIN.
Wheat - The flour of wheat separated from the bran contains 10lb, in every 100 of gluten, and 70lb. of starch; the bran contains 14 to 18lb. in the 100 of gluten, and the whole grain, consisting of flour and bran together, contains 12lb. per 100 of gluten; bread made of whole meal is consequently more nutritious than bread made of fine flour.
oats, &c. - Rich in gluten, and contain more fatty matter than any other of our cereals, consequently eminently nutritious and wholesome.
English wheaten flour contains water 16, gluten 10, fat 2, starch 72 = 100
Bran of English wheat contains water 13, gluten 18, fat 6, starch 63 = 100
Scotch oatmeal contains water 14, gluten 18, fat 6, starch 62 = 100
Indian corn meal contains water 14, gluten 12, fat 8, starch 66 = 100
Wheaten bread - The quantity of water which well-baked wheaten bread contains amounts on an average to about forty-five per cent. It is therefore nearly one half water; and in fact, both meat and drink together. Chemistry of Common Life.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 19.
Grain - from grenian (AS.), to grow.
Wheat - probably so called from the remarkable whiteness of the meal.
Elevated - from e, from, and levor, levatus, to be lifted up; high.
Attains - from ad, to, and teneo, to hold; to come or reach to.
Perfection - from per, through, and facio, factun, to make; made complete, or finished throughout.
Cucumber - probably from curvo, curvare, to bend; in allusion to the curvature of its form; or from cumbo, cubui, to recline, from its position in growing.
Rice - from horuza (Gr.), whence comes the Latin oryza, an astringent grain. The best India rice comes from Patna, but it is inferior to that imported from Carolina in North America.
Millet - probably from mille, a thousand; so called from the immense number of its seeds.
Situations - from situs, a place or position.
irrigated - from in, into, and rigo, rigare, to moisten, to water; to let water into.
Consume - from con, with, and sumo, sumere, to take; to take away with, waste, or exhaust.
Quantities - from quantus, as much, how great.
Eastern - probab1y from ustan (A.S.), to rise, to surge; the sun rises in the east
Southern - from seothan (A.S.), to seethe, to be fervid; in allusion to the best of southern latitudes.
Western - from wesan (A.S.),to moisten or wet probably from the body of water in that direction.
Island - from insula, formed from in, in, and salum, the sea; i.e., surrounded by the sea.
abounds - from ab, from, and undo, undare, to rise in surges; to over- flow with.
Supplied - from sub, below, and pleo, plevi, pletum, to fill; added, furnished.
Imported - from in, in, and porto, portare, to carry, bring in, introduce.
Celebrated - from celeber, famous, renowned; formed from kleio (Gr.), to make famous.
QUESTIONS 19.
What kinds of plants constitute the principal portion of human food?
In what countries is wheat abundantly grown?
Does wheat grow in all situations alike in hot countries?
What kinds of grain are raised where wheat will not grow?
Name other grains which are produced in hot countries.
What is the chief grain of hot climates?
What is there peculiar in the cultivation of rice?
Is corn produced with equal facility and success in all parts of England?
For what produce are the western counties best adapted?
Can you explain why?
What advantages result to society from the different capabilities of soil and climate?
Tell me the names of some of the principal wheat-growing countries.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What proportion of gluten does 100 lbs. of flour of wheat contain?
What is the proportion of starch?
What proportion of these constituents does bran contain?
What proportion is contained in the whole grain?
What inference may we fairly draw from these statements?
That are the characteristics of oats?
What may we conclude as to the nutritive qualities of oatmeal?
What are stated to be the constituents in 100 lbs. of wheaten flour?
What are those of bran? - of Scotch oatmeal? - of Indian corn-meal?
What kind of meal therefore appears to contain most nutriment?
What percentage of water does well-baked wheaten bread contain?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Fruits of different kinds are employed for food. They are various in shape, in colour, in odour, and in flavour; their pleasant juices quench our thirst, and when ripe they are both wholesome and refreshing.
Early in the spring we have strawberries and cherries; these are followed by gooseberries, currants, and raspberries. In summer and autumn we have pears, apples, and plums, as well as apricots, peaches, and nectarines. Then we have grapes, nuts, filberts, walnuts, and chestnuts.
Of all these fruits the apple is the most valuable, as it may, with care, be kept for use during the winter months. Apples are sometimes made into a refreshing beverage called cider. Many kinds of fruits, especially gooseberries, currants, and plums, are preserved by being boiled with sugar. There are, besides these garden productions, several kinds of wild fruit, such as the barberry, the bilberry, the cranberry, and the blackberry, all of which are wholesome, either in their fresh state, or when made into jam. All these fruits are called hardy, that is, they will grow and ripen out of doors in temperate climates.
We receive large supplies of fruit from foreign countries. Grapes when dried are called raisins; grocers' currants are a small species of dried grape. Prunes, figs, dates, and almonds, oranges, melons, and pineapples are all imported. Grapes are grown in hot-houses in most parts of England, but in the warmer countries they grow in the open air, and are made into wine.
Enclosed plantations of fruit trees are called orchards. The grounds where grapes are grown in large quantities are called vineyards.
BENEFITS OF FRUITS. EFFECTS OF CULTIVATION.
wholesome and refreshing - Whenever a failure occurs in the crops of common fruits, the artisans and labourers in manufacturing towns suffer in health.
early in the spring &c. - They ripen in the successive seasons, from spring to those which require the slow maturation of winter. The coldest fruits, as the cucumber and the melon, are the produce of hot climates.
Apples - Fruits do not possess much nutriment; apples contain 80 per cent. of water, plums and other fleshy fruits 75 per cent.; thus the nutritive matter they contain is diluted, and this process of nature is imitated in the preparation of bread. We have the cooling fruits to refresh us in the hottest part of the year.
Wild fruit - No one would imagine that cultivation alone had converted the wild austere crab of our woods into the large and excellent varieties of apple which we possess; nor that our luscious plums are the result of the culture of our wild sloe.
Grapes - The grapes of our vineries are universally acknowledged to be superior to the foreign grapes imported into this country.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS
LESSON 20.
Quench - from cwencan (A.S.), to subdue, slake, or relinquish.
Thirst - from thyrstan (A.S.), to parch, to dry up; a desire for drink.
ripe - from rippan (A.S.), to cut or gather; fruits are gathered (ripped) when mature.
Strawberries - or strayberries, in allusion to their spreading growth.
Cherries - from kerasos (Gr.), a cherry tree, supposed to be deduced from keiro, to cut off, to pluck.
currants - formerly written corinths, from Corinth, a city of Greece; this hardy fruit is remarkable for a mixture of sweetness and acidity; it is called a sub-acid fruit.
Apples - appel (A.S.), a round fruit; the most useful of the fruits of the kitchen garden.
Plums - formerly cultivated extensively near Damascus, in Syria, hence the name of some of its varieties, damascenes, corrupted into damsons.
Nectarine - from nectar (Gr.), delicious food; the fabled food of the pagan deities.
Grapes - probably from gripan (A.S.), to hold or press in the band.
Beverage - probably from the Italian beveraggio, a pleasant drink.
Sugar - from saccharon (Gr.), "reed-honey" (see Jer. vi. 20). This substance is extracted from the sugar cane, as well as from other saccharine plants.
Hardy - from heardian (AS.), able to endure.
foreign-from foris, from abroad, outward.
Raisins - a general term for dried grapes; the particular kinds are named from the countries where they are grown.
Figs - from ficus; their species are numerous, and large quantities are imported.
Dates - from dactulos (Gr.), a finger, so called from their form and growth.
Wine - from vinea, a vineyard, comes from vinum, the expressed fruit of the vine.
Orchards - from orcyard (A.S), an herb-yard, now applied to a garden of fruit trees.
QUESTIONS 20.
How are fruit conducive to man's comfort?
Are they wholesome in all stages of their growth?
What fruits appear early in spring?
And what sorts in summer?
Why are strawberries so named?
What is remarkable in the currant?
Which are the later fruits?
Why is the apple considered so valuable a fruit?
How are certain fruits preserved for winter use?
Enumerate some of the wild fruits that are esculent.
When grapes are dried, what are they called?
Name some of the foreign fruits which we consume.
What are grocer's currants?
Do grapes grow in the open air in all countries?
How are fine grapes grown in England?
What are orchards?
What are vineyards?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is the consequence of a failure in the crops of common fruits?
What conclusion may we draw from this knowledge?
Why are we enabled to have fresh fruits for so large a portion of the year?
When do the new oranges reach England?
In what months must they be gathered in Spain, the Azores, &c;?
What fruits are the products of the hottest climates?
What proportion of nutriment do apples contain? -plums?
By what constituent is their nutriment diluted?
How do we imitate nature in this respect?
When do the coolest fruits ripen with us?
What has cultivation done for the crab of our woods?
What wild fruit is said to be the origin of our plums?
Why are grapes grown in warmer climates so much more than in ours?
Are they grown in our vineries for the same object?
SECTION III. OF FOOD.
Many substances are used to give flavour or relish to food, and thus to gratify the taste. They are called condiments. All preparations used to season food, whether sweet, acid, pungent, or aromatic, are condiments.
The most common condiments are salt, mustard, and pepper. Salt is eaten with nearly all kinds of animal and vegetable food. Mustard with some kinds of meat; pepper with meat and vegetables. Mustard is produced largely in some parts of England. Pepper is a dried berry which is grown in some of the hottest countries of the earth.
There is a great variety of spices used in cookery. Cinnamon is the bark of a tree which is pared off, rolled into pipes, and dried in the sun; it is a production of the island of Ceylon. Nutmeg and mace are parts of the same fruit; the nutmeg is the kernel, and the mace the inner covering of the nut. Cloves are the flower-buds of a tree, which, like the nutmeg, grows in the spice-islands in the Indian Ocean. Ginger is the root of an herb which grows both in the East and the West Indies; it is a warm, grateful spice, if not taken too freely; it is used in making cakes and ginger-bread. Pimento, or allspice, is the berry of a tree which abounds In Jamaica; it is called the all-spice because it combines the flavour and odour of several other spices. Cayenne pepper is the hottest of all the spices, it is the pod of the capsicum ground to powder.
Nearly all the spices have valuable medicinal qualities besides being useful in cooking. Most of them are wholesome, if not used too freely; all have a warm, aromatic flavour and odour.
SALT. SPICES. SUPPLY AND DEMAND REGULATE PRICES.
Salt - Generally made from the rock-salt of mines, but salt was formerly obtained from sea water. If we boil sea-water in a pan, the water will pass off in vapour, and the salt will be left; this may be proved by dissolving a little common salt in water and boiling it. (See foot notes, Lesson 23.)
Spices - The hot aromatic spices cannot be grown in England; they are peculiar to tropical climates. We know that these, and many more of our most ordinary comforts, are derived from distant lands, where they are cultivated for our use. The probable demand for these foreign products is known to our merchants, and the supply seldom fails. Should there, however, be any deficiency, from bad crops, or other causes, the price is advanced, and the consumption becomes less, the advanced price making people more economical in their use; thus the stock may last till the supplies are more abundant, when the price again falls. It is not the retailer nor the merchant, but the small stock, or probable short supply, in proportion to the demand, that regulates prices.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 21.
Flavour - from flairer (Fr.), to scent, smell, or perfume.
Relish - from relecher (Fr.), to re-lick; that which makes one lick his lips again.
Gratify - from gratus, acceptable, pleasing; it comes from charis, charitos (Gr.), grace, favour, delight.
Condiments - from condio, I season, condimentum, seasoning.
Sweet - from swaete (A.S.), an agreeable taste; opposite to bitter, sour.
Pungent - from pungo, to prick, pungens, pricking. The Anglo-Saxon word is pyngan, to prick.
Aromatic - from aroma (Gr.), a pleasing scent.
Spices - probably from spica, an ear of corn; applied first to spikenard, the clove of the nard (spica nardi), and then to the various kinds of aromatics.
Cinnamon - first introduced to the Greeks, along with its name, from the Phoenicians.
Kernel - from cyrran (A.S.), to turn round; a kernel is everywhere surrounded.
Cloves - from cleofian (A.S.), to cleave; a spice, the fruit of a tree cultivated in Amboyna.
Indian - the name India was given by the Greeks to the country lying eastward of the Indus.
Ocean - some say this word is derived from Okus (Gr.), swift, and nao, naein, to flow.
Ginger - in Latin, zingiber; in Greek, zingiberis.
Grateful - from charis, charitos (Gr.), pleasant, and full(A.S.); of pleasant feelings.
Pimento - also called Jamaica pepper, from its cultivation there.
Cayenne - called also bird-pepper.
Capsicum - the seeds of the capsicum, of which there are several varieties, produce both the cayenne and Guinea pepper.
Medicinal - from medomai (Gr.), to heal; medicinal means healing.
QUESTIONS 21.
What are condiments?
Tell me the properties of some of them.
Tell me the names of some of the more common condiments.
With what kinds of food is salt eaten?
Whence is pepper obtained?
What are spices?
Whence is cinnamon obtained?
How is cinnamon prepared?
What do you know about nutmeg and mace?
What are cloves?
What is ginger?
Where is it produced?
What spice combines the qualities of several spices?
Where is the pimento abundant?
What other names has it?
Is there any spice hotter than ginger?
What is cayenne pepper?
What qualities belong to nearly all the spices?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What would be the result of boiling sea-water in a pan?
How can this fact be proved?
Can we grow the aromatic spices in England?
Why not?
Where are they cultivated for us?
By what parties are they obtained?
What consequence arises from a deficient supply?
What effect follows the advance of price?
How does the diminished consumption act on the stock?
What change takes place when the supply becomes abundant?
Then it appears that the advanced price acts beneficially in producing economy of consumption?
And prices are regulated by - what?
What inference may we then draw as to the market prices of corn - of wool - of cotton - of labour, &c.?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
We derive our food from plants or from animals - substances which have already formed a part of some organized body.
If we had not frequent supplies of food our bodily organs would become too weak to perform their functions. An infant requires food soon after its birth; this want is felt again and again after short intervals; the child feels pleasure in taking the food, and its body is thus nourished and strengthened. Throughout life whenever we require food we feel this want or desire, which impels us to eat. It is appetite, the monitor of the body. We might forget to eat, and have feelings of faintness, or death itself might come upon us, if we did not feel this sensation of hunger. Young people eat more than old people; their bodies are growing, and their digestion is rapid, which causes them to require a larger supply of food.
Sensations of a pleasant nature always accompany the gratification of appetite. Wholesome food is grateful to the palate and the stomach, when in a healthy state; but overloading the stomach by eating too much is a source of pain; it disorders the stomach, produces illness, and shortens life. Simple food, in moderate quantities, appeases hunger and nourishes the body; but immoderate eating, and food highly seasoned or much sweetened, cloys the palate, and destroys the relish for wholesome food. The plainest food is most agreeable for the constant demands of appetite. Bread is a food of this kind, and it has consequently been called "the staff of life." Potatoes, rice, sago, arrow-root, Indian corn, and oatmeal have all this valuable property of plainness; they are all more or less insipid, and require a little salt or sugar to give them flavour.
SOURCE OF FOOD. ITS VARIETY. WHY BREAD RISES IN PRICE.
Organised body - All animals feed upon plants or upon other animals; but the animals on which others feed, except fishes, live on vegetables, consequently nearly all our food is directly or indirectly derived from vegetables.
gratification of appetite - The variety in food is not only pleasing to the palate, but desirable for health; any one would soon become diseased who was restricted to a single article of food, however nutritious.
Disorders the stomach - Thus those persons are punished who indulge in excess. nourishes the body - We must eat to live, not live to eat: we eat that we may be enabled to carry on the business of life, - i.e., to work; therefore, he who is idle has no right to his daily bread: "if any will not work, neither shall he eat."
Bread - The largest daily expenditure of a poor man with a family is on this article of food; its cost depends on its abundance or scarcity, and, consequently, on the seasons. An advance in price, when corn is becoming scarce, prevents the wasteful use of bread, and thus saves the country from a temporary famine
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 22.
Derive - from de down, and rivus, a stream, from reo, to flow; to deduce.
Already - from all and ready; from hal (A.S.), the whole, and hrad, prepared; prepared before.
Frequent - from frequento, frequentare, to go often to, to resort much to.
Weak - from wic-an (A.S.), to totter or fall; without strength.
functions - from fungor, functus, to discharge a duty, to perform; offices, duties.
Intervals - from inter, between, and vallus, a stake; originally applied to the spaces between the stakes fixed in the walls of a camp; any space of time or distance.
Impels - from in, on, and pello, to force; to drive forward.
Appetite - from ad, to, and peto,to seek or desire; desire for food.
Monitor - from moneo, monere, monitum, to advise; a monitor is an adviser.
Forget - a getting from the mind, escaping from the memory.
Death - from decidian (A.S.), to die, to destroy.
Hunger - from hungrian (A.S.), to desire, crave, seek earnestly, as if for something to eat.
Simple - from simplex, plain, without mixture; probably formed from sine, without, and plica, a fold or double.
moderate - from modus, a measure; within bounds, no excess.
Cloys - probably from claudo, claudere, to close, stop up, or clog up.
Consequently - from con, with, and sequor, sequens, to follow.
Staff - from stifian (A.S.), to make stiff, to establish; a staff must be stiff, or it will not afford support.
Sago - a Malayan word for the pith of certain tree-ferns or palms.
Arrow-root - so called because the Indians employed the root from which it is obtained as an antidote to the wounds caused by poisoned arrows.
QUESTIONS 22.
Whence do we derive our food?
What would be the consequence if we had not frequent supplies of food?
Does a new-born infant require food?
What feeling impels us to eat?
What office does the appetite sustain towards the body?
Whether do the young or old eat more?
Explain the causes of this.
What feelings are produced by gratifying the appetite?
Why is excess of food to be avoided?
What is the effect of simple food?
What effect has highly-seasoned food upon us?
What kind of food answers it :the constant claims of appetite?
Mention some of the plainer kinds of food.
How is insipidity in food removed?
What is sago?
Why is arrow-root thus named?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What idea do you attach to the words "an organized body"?
Animals feed on - what?
Whence then is all our food derived?
Variety of food gratifies the palate - is it otherwise desirable?
How does gluttony bring its own punishment?
Why do we eat?
What is the business of life?
Who has no right to have daily bread?
What does the apostle say on this subject?
On what article of diet does the poor man expend most?
On what circumstance does the price of bread depend?
What causes affect the abundance or scarcity of corn?
What is the consequence of corn becoming scarce?
What advantage follows the advance of price?
What disadvantage to individuals?
hat benefit to the community?
SECTION III. OF FOOD.
Thirst is a desire for liquid nourishment, it is felt more in the throat than in any other part of the body. Thirst is as much a natural sensation as hunger; and is much more difficult to bear. The means of quenching thirst are therefore more abundantly supplied than those for satisfying hunger.
Water is the natural beverage of man, of animals, arid of vegetables. Men and animals can move about, in search of drink, but upon plants, which have no power of locomotion, water is made to fall in gentle showers, or it is imbibed by the roots. Rain falls upon mountains in larger quantities than on plains; it descends in rivulets, is collected into rivers, and furnishes the earth and animals with a copious supply in nearly all parts of the world. Rivers empty themselves into the sea, whence the waters came. From the sea the waters are again drawn up in vapour, float in clouds, and are condensed and fall again as rain.
Different kinds of beverage are made from the leaves, seeds, and fruits of plants. Thus we have tea from the leaf of one plant, coffee from the fruit of another, and cocoa from the seeds of another; all these are prepared with water and sweetened with sugar. Ale, beer, and porter are made from barley; cider from apples; wine from the grape and various other fruits. Ale, cider, and wine are fermented liquors, and consequently intoxicating.
Several distilled liquors are used as drink, but they are intoxicating and pernicious. It is believed by many that all fermented and intoxicating liquors are injurious to the body. Temperance societies are established to persuade mankind not to use intoxicating liquors because they are deemed hurtful.
CAUSES OF THIRST. EVAPORATION. CONDENSATION.
Natural beverage - Of all the warm-blooded animals, man alone gratifies thirst with any other liquid than water. Dry and salted food excite thirst, because they require a large supply of gastric juice for their digestion. Strong drinks excite thirst, probably by causing irritation in the stomach. Copious exhalations cause thirst; and these are caused by hot rooms, strong exercise, and summer weather.
From the sea - And yet the waters drawn up are not salt like the sea; water is easily evaporated, but salt is not; sea-water being evaporated, leaves the salt behind; thus the rain that falls is fresh water.
Condensed - Water is raised from the sea in an aeriform state, that is, in the form of air or gas; when it cools, it becomes heavy-dense, and falls. The steam from a locomotive engine is not seen at the mouth of the valve, where it is escaping, but a little higher; it becomes visible from mixing with the cold air. Our breath is continually mingling with the air, but we only perceive it when the air is very cold; It is soonest condensed on a frosty day.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 23.
Liquid - from liquo, liquare, to melt, to reduce to a fluid; a fluid substance.
Natural - from natura, nature; that which is in accordance with the laws of nature.
Drink - from drincan (A.S.), to suck in; to swallow any liquid food.
Locomotion - from locus, a place, and motio, moving, from moveo, motum, to move, as from one place to another.
Gentle - from gens, nation; whence gentilis, that which is of the same house or family; agreeable, genial.
Showers - probably from scyran (A.S.), divided, broken, as a rain cloud is broken into drops.
Imbibed - from in, in, and bibo, bibere, to suck or drink; sucked in.
Mountains - from the Latin mons, montem, a very high hill.
Plain - from planus, fiat, level.
Rivulets - from rivulus, the diminutive of rivus, a stream; a little brook, or rill.
Rivers - from rivus, a stream.
Furnishes - from fournir (Fr.), to supply necessaries.
Empty - from emptian (A.S.), to throw out, to evacuate.
Sea - from xeo, xeein (Gr.), to bubble up, to be in a ferment.
Vapour - from vapor, a hot moist exhalation.
Float - from fleotan (A.S.), to swim, to rise upon the surface.
condensed - from con, together, and denso, desare, to thicken; gathered together.
Rain - from rinan (AS.), to run, flow, or fall in drops.
Tea - called by the Chinese tcha, was first brought into Europe by the Dutch East India Company, and introduced into England about 1666.
Coffee - so called from Kaffa in Africa; that grown in Arabia is the best.
Cocoa - the seeds of the cacao are about the length of an almond kernel.
Ale - from aelan (A.S.), to warm, kindle, inflame; a strong beer which warms and inflames.
Beer - probably from bere (A.S.), for barley.
Porter - from portare, to carry; on its first introduction it was chiefly drunk by porters.
Fermented - from fermento, fermentare, to make light or puffy.
Intoxicating - from the (Gr.) toxon, a bow, is derived toxeuo, to shoot with an arrow, and thence toxicon, poison, because it was customary to dip the arrows in poison; whence intoxicating; an intoxicated person has poison within him.
Distilled - from distillo, distillare, to drop down by little and little.
Pernicious - from per, by means of, and neco, necare, to kill; that which is hurtful to life.
QUESTIONS 23.
What is thirst? Where is it most felt?
What means are provided for gratifying this ntura1 sensation?
What classes of creatures depend on water for quenching their thirst?
By what means are animals supplied?
How are plants supplied with moisture?
How are rivers formed?
From what source does all water proceed?
Mention some of the various kinds of beverages.
In what manner are different kinds prepared for use?
What pernicious beverages are sometimes used as drink?
What state does the use of these liquors in excess induce?
What opinion is held by many as to the use of intoxicating liquors?
What efforts are now being made to check intemperate habits?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is the natural beverage of man and other animals?
What conditions excite thirst, and how are they caused?
Water evaporates from the ocean and yet is not salt - how is this?
How can you prove that salt does not evaporate?
Then rain is fresh water - why?
In what state is water raised from the sea?
What do you mean by aeriform?
How does water change as it cools?
What causes it to fall?
The vapour from an engine is not visible at the mouth of the valve - How is this?
Where does it become visible, and from what cause?
When do we perceive our breath in the air?
Can you think of anything analogous to this concerning the mist of a summer evening?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Were man to cease from labour the earth would no longer yield her increase. Industry properly applied produces all the necessaries and comforts of life. The farmer has to grow crops on his farm that will pay his rent and his work-people, and leave him a profit for his family expenses. While he is doing this he is assisting in the supply of man's wants.
The labours of the husbandman are required in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and during every week of the year. Many of the operations of farming depend on the state of the weather.
Commencing with spring, the farmer sows oats and spring wheat in March, and barley in April, he plants potatoes in May, and drills turnips in June; in June also he mows rye-grass, and in July he mows the natural grass of the meadows and fields. The reaping of corn is commenced in August, and often continues through September. In October and November the farmer sows his main crops of wheat; in December and the other winter months, the threshing of corn, and the feeding of cattle occupy him within doors. The providing of fuel and manure, raising and mending fences, cutting drains, and forming embank- merits, are the out-door occupations of the winter, which must have his attention, and furnish employment for his labourers.
While the operations of the growing season are going forward, his crops must be kept free from weeds; and during the labours of all the different periods of the year his labourers, as well as his flocks and herds, must be superintended, his implements kept in good order, and his premises kept free from vermin.
AGRICULTURE. SAVAGE LIFE. DRAINING. MACHINES NECESSARY.
to grow crops - No animals can exist where plants have not preceded them; the chief care of the farmer is therefore to produce plants for the sustenance of animals; our daily means of support is drawn from "our mother earth:" thus we see again how anima1s are dependent on vegetables, and vegetables on the mineral soil.
supply of man's wants - Hence we see the benefits of agriculture in comparison with the hunter's mode of life still pursued by some savage tribes; the farmer produces a regular and successive supply, the hunter's success is precarious; civilised nations have abundance of food, savages are sometimes for many days without food.
cutting drains - Some farms are so flat that the rains cannot escape, the water stagnates and keeps the soil moist and cold, an outlet must therefore be provided.
Implements - Every kind of agricultural implement has been much improved in its construction, and machines do much of the work men used to perform. If it were not for the aid of machines, the quantity of food now required could not be supplied, and dearness would follow the scarcity consequent on poor farming.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 24.
yield - from gyldan (A.S.), to pay, to render.
Increase - from in, within, and cresco, crescere, to grow; to become more in quantity.
Industry - from industria, diligent and skilful; attention to labour.
Applied - from ad, towards, and plico, to fold together, from plekro (Gr.), to twine, connect, i.e., to join or fix to.
Pay - from payer (Fr.), to appease or satisfy a demand.
Rent - from rente (Fr.), a return; that which is paid in return for the use of house or land.
Profit - pro, before and facio, facere, to make or do; to get forward.
Husbandman - from hus, a house, and buan, buand (A.S.), to occupy; meaning the principal occupier, the head of the house; or hus (A.S.), a house, and banda (A.S.), a band, house-band; the band and bond of the house, who shall bind and hold it together.
"The name of the husband, what is it to say,
Of wite and of household, the band and the stay." - FULLER.
Weather - from wehen (Ger.), to blow; the state of the air or atmosphere.
Mows - from mawan (A.S.), to cut or reap.
Meadows - from maed (A.S.), that which is mowed.
Fields - from faellan (A.S.), to fell, cut down; lands upon which the trees have been felled; or fields may be so called because the grass is cut down.
Reaping - from rippan (A.S.), to rip or cut up.
Fuel - from feu (Fr.), fire, all that may be used as the aliment of fire, such as coal, fire-wood, &c.
Manure - from mainouvrer, an old Norman word, to work with the hand; that which is laid on the surface of the soil to enrich it.
Fences - from fendo,fendere, that which defends.
Drains - from drygan (A.S.), to dry up.
Embankments - from banc (A.S.), a hill.
Occupations - from occupo, occupare, to take possession.
Weeds - from weod (A.S.), a covering; originally applied to grass, the covering of the earth.
Superintend - from super, above, and intendo, to stretch; to have a care over.
Premises - so named from the previous setting forth in leases or covenants; from praemises, matters set forth.
Vermin - from vermis, a worm, a grub; all hurtful animals, whether worms, insects, or quadrupeds, are so called.
QUESTIONS 24.
What operations are necessary to render the earth productive?
What are the results of intelligent industry?
What is the main business of the farmer?
What benefits does he receive and confer by the sale of his crops?
Are his labours constant?
What circumstances may temporarily stop them?
What are his duties in March?
What in April? What in May?
What are his labours in June?
What has he to do in July?
What important work awaits him in August and September?
How is he occupied in October and November?
How does he employ his labourers in winter?
Is there rest for him while his crops are growing?
Enumerate some of his additional labours.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is the chief care of the farmer?
Why is it necessary to cultivate the earth?
What benefits do mankind derive from agriculture?
Why is the hunter's life a precarious one?
What is the consequence to such tribes of men?
What advantage have civilised nations over them?
Why is it necessary to cut drains on some farms?
What advantage have all the community from the improved construction of agricultural implements?
What would be the consequence of returning to the use of old machines and implements?
Who suffer most in seasons of dearth?
SECTION III. OF FOOD.
Farms require skill, labour, and money to make them productive; therefore they can only be profitably cultivated by the intelligent and industrious farmer, who possesses capital sufficient for the expenditure his land requires for the purchase of stock and implements, and for the payment of wages.
Much of the success of farming depends upon a knowledge of the soil to be cultivated. Some crops will grow better on one kind of soil than another; such crops should therefore be raised as the soil is best adapted to produce in abundance and perfection. A knowledge of the kind of land is important also for ascertaining what kind of cultivation and manure are requisite. Heavy lands need breaking, poor lands enriching, weedy lands cleansing, &c. A farm in order to pay for its cultivation ought also to be drained where it is wet, and fenced where it is open.
The same crop can rarely follow year after year in the same field. The potato requires support of a different kind and less in quantity than corn, this root therefore does not exhaust the soil. A heavy crop of corn will grow without additional manure on land that has been prepared for potatoes the previous season. Farmers follow certain rotations in cultivation; in the four-year course, turnips, barley, clover, and wheat may succeed each other.
All plants require tillage or nourishment for their support. The tillage or manures chiefly used are stable-dung, bone-dust, rape-dust, guano, excrements of animals, all animal matter in a state of decomposition, and decayed vegetables. Most farmers fatten a few animals for the butcher, and their wives generally look after the dairy and the poultry-yard.
OF NATURAL SOILS. EFFECT OF CROPS. MANURES.
A knowledge of the soil - Limestone, sandstone, and clay are the principal kinds of soils. The limestone soils are in the neighbourhood of limestone rocks; the sandstone, or red soils, are on or near sand-rocks; and the clay soils originate in the clay rocks. In some districts the three kinds of rock, intermixed, form the soil. Soils are formed by the crumbling of rocks, from the action of frost, rains, &c.
the same crops, &c. - Because it has impoverished that soil of the nutriment the crop requires for its support, while another kind of plant, not requiring that kind of nutriment, would thrive there. The farmer ham to find out the means of restoring fertility to land; or the kind of animal, vegetable, or mineral manure it requires.
require tillage - Tillage can only be supplied effectively by those who know the nature of the soil, the crops grown previously to manuring, and the crops to be grown; the manure ought to be such as contains food for the future plant.
Guano - This putrified excrement of sea fowls consists chiefly of salts of ammonia and undecomposed organic matters, similar in their nature to horn, wool, feathers, &c.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 25.
Skill - from scylan (A.S.), to discriminate; a skilful person distinguishes accurately between one thing and another.
Labour - from labor, labour, derived from labo, labare, to totter, to fail; that which carried to excess causes the strong man to totter, and his strength to fall.
Money - it may be from mynetian (A. S.), to stamp or coin.
Profitably - from proficio, profectum, to derive advantage.
Capital - from caput, capitis, the head, comes capital, capitalis, the principal amount; profits are interest on capital. Capita is the technical term for money that is employed in business.
Expenditure - from ex, out, and pendo, pensum, to pay; outlay of money.
Stock - from stocken (Ger.), to fix or plant, in allusion to a tree; from the stock ,fruit or profit is expected. The stock of a farmer consists of cattle, called live-stock, and of implements, called dead-stock.
Implement - from impleo, implens, to fill up, to accomplish.
Wages - from gages (Fr.), a pledge; that which a man engages to pay for another's labour.
Crops - from carpo (by literal transposition), to gather fruits; or croppes (A.S.); crops are the gathered fruits of the earth, trees, &c.
Ascertaining - from ad, (intensive), and certus, certurn, sure; to make very sure, or to decide upon close and intelligent examination.
Open - from yppan (A.S.), to extend; to unclose.
Exhaust - from ex, out of; and haurio, haustum, to draw; to make empty, waste.
Tlllage - from tilian (A.S.), to toil, to labour; the cultivation of the earth is the most important of all human toil.
Guano - from huana (Peru.), dung; the ordure of sea-fowl, found in great abundance in the Lobos Islands off Peru.
Butcher - from bucca, mouth; butcher was formerly applied to purveyors in general; now only to those who kill animals for food.
Wives - from wifian, to marry; a woman married or not was formerly called the wif-man; now the married woman only is called the wife.
QUESTIONS 25.
What must a farmer possess in order to profit by his farming?
What is the technical term for money that is employed in business?
For what purpose is the farmer's outlay required?
Why should a farmer have a knowledge of soils?
What should be done with heavy - with poor - with weedy - with wet lands?
Why cannot the same crop be grown year after year on one field?
Why may wheat succeed potatoes?
What is a common rotation of crops for four successive years?
What is tillage?
Mention a few of the manures in use.
Besides the cultivation of his land, what else must the farmer attend to?
What duties devolve on farmers' wives?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Which are the principal kinds of soil?
Where are they found respectively?
Are soils to be found of a mixed character?
How are soils formed?
Why does the same crop in successive years impoverish land?
Why would a different crop grow well?
What then has the farmer to discover?
Can you mention some of the different kinds of manures?
What should the husbandman know before he adds tillage to his fields?
When he knows this what kind of manure should he supply?
What is guano?
Whence is it brought?
Of what does it consist?
Why are wool, hair, bones, and feathers good tillage?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Purveyors are those who provide us with food of any sort. The farmer, the miller, the baker, the butcher, the dairyman, the green-grocer, and the brewer, with many others, are purveyors.
Almost all these employments are connected with the farmer; the miller, the baker, the butcher, the dairyman, and the brewer depend upon him for their supplies.
The farmer raises crops of wheat, barley, oats, &c.; and rears cattle and poultry with which to supply the market.
After he has threshed the corn he sends it to the miller. The miller, by grinding and sifting the corn, provides flour for bread, and bran for pigs and other animals.
He supplies the baker with flour; and the baker mixes the flour with water, salt, and yeast to make bread.
The butcher obtains oxen, sheep, and pigs from the farmer; these are killed and cut into joints to supply his customers.
The dairyman procures his cows from the farmer or the cattle-dealer, and from the farmer he also obtains hay or turnips to feed them with.
The gardener's operations are not so extensive as those of the farmer. Instead of a plough he uses a spade, and instead of a harrow, a rake. He raises all kinds of kitchen vegetables, pot-herbs, and fruits. He increases his stock of plants by sowing, by shoots, by suckers, by cuttings, and by layers from old plants; he grafts fine varieties of fruits on wild stocks, and grows some plants, that require artificial heat, such as melons, cucumbers, and vines in hot-beds, hot-houses, or vineries. These are heated by stoves, by hot air, or by hot water, conveyed through pipes, or flues, or by the rays of the sun being collected in glass buildings.
THE MILLER. THE BAKER. YEAST. ADULTERATION OF BREAD.
The miller - The farmer sells corn, the miller buys it, grinds it, and sells it as flour, putting on it an extra price for his trouble; or, he grinds corn for the farmer, or for those who buy of the farmer, charging a certain price for grinding and dressing it. The baker is a large purchaser from the miller; the miller also supplies shopkeepers, who retail small quantities of flour to those housewives who make their own bread; many families are, however, supplied by the baker.
yeast to make bread - Yeast is added to the flour when it is mixed with water to make the dough; the yeast causes the dough to ferment, and this process makes the dough light and porous. When the dough is properly kneaded it is formed into loaves; the loaves are then put into a hot oven, where the fermentation and swelling increase, till the heat becomes so great as to stop it.
It is said that the adulteration of bread is extensively carried on by some dishonest bakers, by means of carbonate of ammonia, plaster of Paris, chalk, pipe-clay, burnt bones, alum, bean-meal, and pea-meal.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 26.
purveyors - from pourvoir (Fr.), to procure; those who provide food.
provide - from pro, before, and video, vidi, to see; to foresee necessities and prepare to meet them.
Miller - from moleo, molere, to grind. The quern, or handmill, was the most ancient method of grinding corn.
Baker - from backen (Ger.) to dry by heat.
dairyman - much more ancient than dairy-maid.
Flour - the flos, farinae or flower of the corn.
Bran - from brun (A.S.), brown, in allusion to its colour, compared with the whiteness of meal.
Grinding - from grindan (A.S.), to rub, as with the teeth, or by two stones.
Sifting - from siftan (A.S.), to search or separate.
Yeast - from yst (A.S.), to foam, be angry; the froth or foam of beer.
Customers - those who are accustomed to purchase goods from the same tradesman; from consuere, to do anything habitually.
Harrow - from hergian (A.S.), to lay waste, to break in pieces; a harrow breaks the clods.
Rake - from racian (A.S.), to collect or gather, as hay, into a heap.
Cook - from coquo, coctun, to cook; hence coquina, a kitchen, a place where food is dressed for use.
Herbs - from herba, grass, d2rived from pherbo (Gr.), to feed, nourish; herbs nourish animals.
Suckers - from suc-an (A.S.), to draw in, to drain; suckers draw nutriment from the stalk.
Grafts - from grafan (A.S.), to ingrail, to cut into; grafts are fitted into incisions made to receive them.
Artifical - from ars, artis, handicraft, and facio, feci, to make; made by the skill of man.
Stoves - from stofa (A.S.), a fire-place.
Pipes - from the old word phiph, now spelled fife, a hollow instrument of music. The word phiph comes from the German puffers, to blow. Pipe is applied to any hollow cylinder or tube.
rays - from radio, radiare, to emit or shoot forth in lines or beams of light as from a centre.
glass - the mode of making glass was discovered in Syria in very ancient times. Glass-blowing was not practised in England till 1557.
QUESTIONS 26.
What is the office of a purveyor?
Give me the derivation of the word?
Whence is provide derived?
Enumerate some of the purveyors.
Which of these purveyors are dependent on the fanner for their supplies?
On whom does the baker depend?
What ingredients does he use?
Show how other tradesmen depend on the farmer.
Explain the difference in the work of the farmer and that of the gardener.
Show the difference in their tools.
What productions are usually raised by the gardener?
How does he increase his stock?
What plants require artificial heat in our climate?
In what places are they grown?
How are these places heated?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Who is the grower of corn?
Who is a large purchaser?
What is his business?
Why does he charge more for flour than he gives for corn?
Who purchases meal largely of the miller?
To whom does the miller also supply corn?
Why does it answer the purpose of people in a town to buy of the shopkeeper, and allow him a profit, rather than to buy of the miller?
If the bread of the baker were always good and honest, would it not be more profitable to buy of him than for families to make and bake their own bread ?
Why ?
For what is yeast incorporated in dough?
How long does the fermentation caused by the yeast last?
By what substances do dishonest bakers and millers adulterate bread and flour?
SECTION III. OF FOOD.
Lesson 27. Purveyors. (Continued.)
After barley has been grown by the farmer it is sold in large quantities to the maltster, by whom it is converted into malt. To do this the grain is steeped in water, and afterwards spread out to germinate; its growth is then stopped by drying it iii a kiln. This process gives the barley a sugary taste.
The brewer steeps the malt in hot water, the liquor thus produced is sweet-wort. The wort is boiled with hops to prevent it from turning sour, and afterwards fermented. Ale, beer, and porter are made from malt and hops. In brewing porter, Spanish liquorice and burnt sugar are also used, to give it a dark colour, and its peculiar flavour. Hops are the flowers of a climbing plant which is cultivated largely in Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, Hampshire, Kent, and Sussex. The blossoms are picked by boys, girls, and women in the month of September.
The grocer keeps for sale a great variety of the necessaries and comforts of life. He is supplied with them by different merchants. One merchant procures tea from China; another, sugar and treacle from the West Indies; another, raisins and currants from France, from Italy, and from Greece; another, rice and spices from the East Indies. Merchants send ships to bring these articles from the countries in which they grow, where many people are employed in their cultivation. Thus labour is going on in all parts of the earth, and the productions of one country are conveyed to another.
The sea is the great highway of nations, so that we require sailors to navigate ships in order to obtain these sup plies from distant countries.
ACTION OF YEAST. SUPPLIES FROM ABROAD.
Fermented - The making of bread and the brewing of beer both depend in part on fermentation, which is, in fact, decomposition. Yeast, a minute plant, is the ferment employed for producing this result. It propagates itself with great rapidity in liquid and moist substances containing sugar. Dough contains a small quantity of sugar, on which the yeast acts in bread-making; the worts of the brewer and the juice of the grape are also fermented by yeast in the making of beer and wine. (See Chemistry of Common Life.)
Different merchants - We can scarcely sit down to a meal without acknowledging our dependence on foreign productions. The wood of our table may have grown in the solitudes of Honduras, or on the dark hills of Norway; the flax of our tablecloth was, perhaps, brought from the shores of the Neva; the sugar-cane may have grown in Jamaica, or on the banks of the Ganges; the tea may have traversed the rivers of China hundreds of miles before being packed at Canton; and the coffee was cultivated in Turkey, India, or America; it may even be a question whether our bread is of home-grown wheat, or of that of some distant country.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 27.
Barley - from bere (A.S.); this grain is chiefly used for brewing in these countries. It germinates so freely that a wet harvest proves a serious loss to the farmer; in a wet season barley sometimes vegetates before it is reaped; it is then unfit for brewing, and only useful for feeding pigs.
Germinate - from germino, germinatus, to bud forth, sprout, blossom. Germino is from germen, a sprout, and this from gero, to bear.
Kiln - from cwellan (A.S.), to destroy; the germination of the malt is killed in the kiln.
Wort - wyrt (A.S.), is a word applied to all plants and spices having a pleasant smell.
liquorice - from 1iquo, liquare, to melt or dissolve; liquorice is the cooled sediment of black sugar, called Spanish juice.
Hops - this narcotic plant gives a pleasant bitter aromatic flavour to beer. An English hop-ground is a much more picturesque scene than a foreign vineyard.
Blossoms - from blosm, blosmian (AS.), flowers; buds burst forth.
woman - or woof-man (see wife and woven); women in former times laboured much in spinning and weaving. See Prov. xxxi. 13, 19, 22, 24.
Merchants - from merx, mercis, goods, comes mercor, mercatus, to buy, purchase, trade; mercery, silk goods.
Treacle - from ther (Gr.), a wild beast, is derived theriakos (Gr), a remedy for the bite of a venomous animal; whence treacle, the subsiding syrup in the making of sugar.
Ship - schip (Du.), schiff (Teut.), skip (Dan.), scoffan (A.S.), to drive or force forward; ships were anciently propelled by oars.
Nations - from nascor, natus, to be born; whence natio, nationis, people born in the same country or descended from the same parentage, possessing a distinct existence.
Sailors - those who sail. Sail is probably from seglian (A.S.), sailing.
Navigate - from navis, a ship, and ago, egi, to lead or drive carefully; to guide or direct a ship on a voyage.
QUESTIONS 27.
Who is the farmer's chief customer for barley?
For what purpose does he require it?
Can you shortly describe the process of
matting?
What is the business of the brewer?
Why are hops boiled with wort?
What are the ingredients of ale, beer, and porter?
What additions are made to porter?
Where are hops largely cultivated?
What purveyor distributes a great number of the necessaries of life?
From whom does he obtain his supplies?
What does the China merchant import?
-the West India merchant?
What articles do we obtain from France? - from Italy ? - from Greece?
What good results from the interchange of commodities?
What epithet is applied to the sea, as a means of communication between distant countries?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
On what does the making of bread in part depend?
What is fermentation?
What is yeast?
For what is it used?
In what substances does it rapidly propagate itself?
Does dough then contain sugar?
In what other processes is yeast used?
Imagine a table set out for tea or breakfast, and take away all articles of foreign produce - What would be left?
Then we depend on foreign supplies for many necessaries of life?
Where is mahogany grown? - deal?
What foreign countries supply us with flax?
Whence do we obtain sugar? - tea? - coffee?
From what countries do we receive wheat?
Is all the butter consumed here our own produce?
Are the eggs ? - is the beef ? - the pork? -cheese ?
SECTION IV. OF CLOTHING.
Clothing for the body is necessary for comfort and for health. Animals have natural clothing provided for them, such as wool, fur, hair, feathers, scales, or down, suitable for their wants and mode of life. The covering of some animals is their habitation, as the snail, the oyster, and various other shell-fish. The human race were intended to inhabit all climates, and they are able to adapt their clothing to burning heats, chilling frosts, and the changes of the atmosphere. A sense of modesty also induces the human race to wear clothing.
Numerous plants and animals afford materials for clothing. Many of these materials are spun, woven, and bleached, or dyed; others are only dressed to soften them, or to make them otherwise fit for use. All these processes of manufacture furnish employment to many thousands of people, and thus provide them with the means of subsistence.
The different articles of dress vary in the two sexes, and in different countries. Some savages in hot climates cover only a part of their body; others wear a rug or blanket round them; others form a mantle from the hide of animals, or a mat of reeds or straw.
The inhabitants of eastern countries wear loose robes and turbans; those of the west vary their dress according to fashion. In the countries where the winters are long and severe, the furs of bears and other animals are formed into cloaks, and over-coats; while in the hottest climates, where the inhabitants are civilized, the dresses worn are of thin cotton. Thus men adapt their clothing to the climates they inhabit, and change them according to the vicissitudes of the seasons.
RAW MATERIALS OF CLOTHING. - THE COTTON POD TO THE SHIRT.
natural clothing - The hand of man, aided by his intelligence, enables him to make use of natural productions, and to form artificial fabrics for clothing.
Plants - The cotton-pod and the flax-fibre are the two most important raw vegetable materials used for clothing; but the cotton plant must be cultivated, the pods gathered, picked, cleansed, &c., and the flax must be sown and grown, and the fibres dressed before the spinning and weaving can be commenced.
Animals - Neither can woollen clothes be provided unless sheep are reared, and carefully tended, sheared, and the wool dressed, spun, and woven.
These processes - Clothing materials are produced by much hand labour and skill. Art, science, and capital are required before the cotton-pod can become a shirt. The grower, the gatherer, the dresser, the shipper, the packer, all require tools and machinery to carry on their processes before the cotton comes into the hands of the merchant, the spinner, the weaver, the bleacher, the dyer, the dealer, the shopkeeper, the needle-woman, the wearer. Whatever the fabric may be, processes analogous to these must be gone through.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 28.
Clothing - from clad (A.S.) cloth.
Health - from haelan (A.S.), to make bound or whole; a state of physical soundness.
Natural - from naturalis, from natura, nature, deduced from nascor, natus, to be born; belonging to the peculiar condition or nature of a thing.
Wool - from wul(A.S.)
Down - probably from dumen (Ger.), to swell, rise; the finest feathers.
Mode - from modus, rule, manner, order.
Snail - from snakel, formed from snican, (A.S.), to creep, to sneak; snails creep slowly.
Adapt - from ad; to, and apto, to fit; to fit or accommodate to.
Burning - from bernan or byrnan(A.S.), to be on fire, to be inflamed.
Chiling - from celan (A.S.), to cool.
Frosty - from frees-am (A.S.), to stiffen, to freeze.
Atmopsphere - from atmos, breath or air, and sphaira (Gr.), a globe; the air surrounding the globe.
modesty - from modus, manner, and honos, homestus, honourable, discreet.
Induces - from in, and duco, ductum, to lead.
Race - from radix (Gr.), a root; applied to a family, a generation, or a people.
spun - from spinnan (A.S.), to draw out; spinning was once commonly practised, hence unmarried women were called spinsters.
Woven - from weifan (A.S.), to cover; in weaving one line of threads covers another line.
Bleached - from bleichen (Ger.), to whiten, to cleanse.
Dyed - from deagan (A.S.), to colour; tinged.
manufacture - from manus, the hand, and facio, factum, to make; that which is made by hands.
Subsistence - from sub, under, and sisto, sistere, to support; that by which we are supported.
blanket - so called from one Thomaa Blanket, of Bristol, who was the first in England to weave "white woollen cloth," A.D. 1857.
Robe - from raub (Ger.), a vestment which covers other garments.
Turbans - from turbo, turbinis, a turning round; turbans are formed of whirls of cloth.
Vicissitudes - from vicis, vicissitudo, change, variety, one after another.
QUESTIONS 28.
In what respects is clothing necessary?
What are the different hinds of natural clothing of animals?
How is it that the human race is destitute of natural clothing?
What do you call the clothing that human beings wear?
By the exercise of what endowment do men and women adapt their clothing to various climates?
What additional motive induces people to clothe themselves?
Whence are the materials of clothing obtained?
Enumerate some of the processes through which the raw materials pass.
How do some savages dress?
How are the Easterns clothed?
What is the clothing of people in the cold latitudes?
In what respect is the clothing of civilized nations varied, so as to produce comfort?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Furs, feathers, hair, &c., are the natural clothing of animals - man has none
- what then enables him to supply this want?
Which are the two most important vegetable materials for human clothing?
What operations are necessary before cotton pods can be converted into yards of calico?
And what to convert the flax into linen?
And what to obtain woollen cloths from sheep?
Then labour and skill must be expended? - What arts are necessary?
What has science to do with the formation of clothing?
Can art and science be applied without capital?
Tell me a few of the items that require capital?
Why does the grower require capital?
Why does the packer also require capital?
What capital has the poor man to invest in the production of fabrics for clothing?
SECTION IV. OF CLOTHING.
The dress of women is in all countries more uniform in outward appearance than that of men. It varies in materials like that of men, according to the climate or the season, but in nearly all countries the dress of women is loose and flowing.
The dress of both men and women should be light, loose, and cool; suited to the season, so that the body shall not feel uncomfortable either from the heat or from the cold. If dress is so tight as to press on any part of the body, it impedes the circulation of the blood. Tight lacing interferes with the free action of the lungs; and prevents the stomach from performing its proper functions; it thus lays the foundation of many diseases.
Various articles are used in dress as fastenings and ornaments; among which are pins, buckles, buttons, clasps, and hooks-and-eyes. The manufacture of these useful articles employs many thousands of people. The more costly ornaments of dress, such as brooches, rings, ear-rings, bracelets, and chains, employ workers in gold, silver, and other metals. Besides these, nearly every separate article of dress is made by persons accustomed to that particular article; a stay-maker does not make caps and bonnets, nor does a bonnet-maker make gloves. The tailor, the shoemaker, the boot-maker, the glover, the hosier, the hatter, the milliner, the dressmaker, and the furrier find separate employment. The manufacturers who supply the fabrics from which dress is made, employ thousands of people in their manufacture, and the merchants who procure the materials from which these fabrics are wrought are very numerous both in this country and abroad.
RESULTS OF TIGHT LACING. DIVISION OF LABOUR ILLUSTRATED.
Tight lacing - Perfect respiration requires that the motion of the ribs should he unrestrained; pressure upon them impedes their motion, the circulation of the blood is inadequately performed, the muscles of the back become weakened, round shoulders, an arched back, and curvature of the spine ensue, followed by difficulty of breathing, and leading on to consumption and premature death.
Pins, buckles, buttons, clasps, hooks and eyes - In pin-making, the wire drawing, the straightening, the cutting into lengths, the pointing, the heading, the tinning, the sticking on paper, and the wrapping, are all operations which are performed by different sets of hands. The manufacture of other small articles can only be profitably carried on by a similar division of labour. A single process in a trade is learned, and skill is acquired by its constant exercise; there is no changing of place, of tools, no waste materials in learning, each individual performs that part which he can perform well. This division of labour tends to the cheapness of the articles produced, and the cheapness increases the demand for them -Babbage
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 29.
Dress - from dresser (Fr.)to put in order, to adjust, rectify.
Uniform - from unus, una, one, and forma, shape; of the same shape,
Loose - from lysan (A.S.), to let go, dismiss, to be free.
Flowing - from flowan (A.S.), to move or glide on smoothly.
Light - from leoghtan (A.S.), to disburden, relieve, to free from pressure.
tight - from tectum, made or drawn close.
Impedes - impedio, from in against, pes, pedes (Lat.), pous, podo. (Gr.), a foot; to cause obstruction to the foot.
Interferes - from inter, within, and fero, ferre, to bear, to obtrude.
Fourndation - fondation (Fr.), from fundus, the groundwork of anything; the chief cause of anything.
Pins - from pyndan (A.S.), to confine, to fasten; pins fasten loose portions
of dress.
Buckle - from bugan (A.S.), to bend; a bent fastener.
Buttons - upwards of 5,000 persons are employed in the button trade in Birmingham, half of whom are women and children.
Clasps - from clyppan (A.S.), to embrace, to hold. fast.
Brooches - breccan (A.S.), to break or split, as bits of wood for fastenings; the term briches is still used in Yorkshire for wooden pegs used as fasteners.
bracelets-from brachium, the arm; ornaments for the wrists or arms.
Chains - chaine (Fr.), catena (Lat.), connected links of metal.
Bonnet - probably from the Swedish bonad, a covering.
Tailor - from tailleur (Fr.), a cutter.
Gloves - from cliofian (A.S.), to cleave; gloves are cases for the hands, having
clefts to allow free and independent motion. Gloves arc of great antiquity; they were introduced into England about the year 900.
QUESTIONS 29.
What peculiarity is observable in the clothing of women generally?
What is the chief characteristic in the dress of women in all countries?
What qualification should the clothing of both men and women possess?
What ill effect has tight clothing on the body?
What prevalent habit of dress is prejudicial to health?
Enumerate some of the smaller articles used in dress, which employ many people in their production.
Enumerate some of the more costly ornaments used in dress.
What trades are supported by the demands for clothing?
By whom are the various fabrics which are used for dress made?
From whom do the manufacturers procure the different materials of which such fabrics are formed?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Why is tight lacing pernicious?
What is the consequence of pressure upon the ribs?
What evil results follow such a practice?
How many pins can you buy for a half-penny?
Describe the processes every one of them has to go through.
How is it that these operations can be performed, and yet so many pins sold
for a halfpenny?
Each set of hands then performs - What?
How is it that each set is enabled to do their part well and quickly?
Tell me the advantages (in point of cheap production) of each individual
keeping to a single process?
What effect follows cheapness of production?
What is this principle in trade called?
In the production of what other articles is the principle carried out?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 30. Materials of Dress.
There are four different kinds of material extensively used in clothing, namely, cotton, flax, wool, and silk. Two of them are vegetable productions, namely, cotton and flax; the other two are animal productions, namely, silk and wool.
Cotton is a downy wool with very fine fibres. It grows on several trees, natives of the warmer parts of Asia, Africa, and America. The plant bears a yellow flower, and yields a pod of the size of a large walnut, which ripens and bursts. The seeds are contained in the pod, but they are picked out before the cotton can be spun. Cotton is woven into such fabrics as calico, muslin, gingham, dimity, counterpanes, fustians, &c.
Flax, from which all linen fabrics are made, grows in temperate countries. The plant grows about three feet high. The fibres of the stalk form the yarn from which linen, lawn, and cambric are woven.
Wool is furnished to us by the sheep; after the sheep are sheared the fleece is spun into yarn. Woollen yarn is used for making cloths, flannels, thick shawls, and other warm fabrics. Worsted yarn, which is wool twisted in a particular way, is woven into merino, stuffs, and light fabrics.
Silk is the most beautiful of all the materials of dress. It is produced in fine fibres by the caterpillar of the silkworm moth, which is fed in large numbers on mulberry trees for the purpose. The fibre thus obtained is spun into strong threads, and woven into fabric for shawls, for dresses, for handkerchiefs, for velvets, &c.
All these textures are bleached to produce whiteness, or dyed to assume various colours.
BLACKING. DYEING. DIFFERENT KINDS OF DYES.
bleached, dyed, &c. - Cotton, flax, wool, and 8silk are the fabrics to which the process of bleaching is most commonly applied. These substances contain natural colouring matters, which can be decomposed, and thus got rid of, without injury to their textures; they are thus prepared for the dyer or printer of such fabrics. The bleaching of linen formerly occupied some months; it is now, owing to the progress of chemical science, accomplished in a few hours. The dyeing of woven fabrics with permanent colours was known to, and practised by, the most ancient nations. Many vegetables that yield valuable dyes are now obtained from the new world, which were unknown in the earlier ages; some of less value are indigenous to our own country. Brazil wood, logwood, arnotto, &c., are foreign dyes; woad, orchil, and some barks are native dyes; mineral compounds are also used in dyeing, as Prussian blue and chrome yellow; animal substances are also largely used, as cochineal, lac, kermes, &c. Alum and solution of tin are employed by dyers to fix the colours and to give them intensity.-Knight's Cyclopedia of Industry.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS
LESSON 30.
Cotton - the cotton plant, called by the Arabs kute, is found wild both in the old and new world. Most of the cotton used in this country is imported from the southern states of North America.
Flax - an annual plant, cultivated from time immemorial for weaving into linen cloth. Efforts are at present being made to extend its cultivation.
calico-so named because this material was first imported into England from Calicut, a city of the province of Malabar in India, in 1631.
Muslin - first worn in England in 1670; named from Moussel, a town in Mesopotamia, where it was early manufactured.
Linen - from linum, flax.
gingham - from Guingamp, a town of Brittany, formerly celebrated for these fabrics. Ginghams are made of cotton, of linen, and of linen and cotton united.
cambric - from Cambray, in France, once noted for this manufacture.
Shear - from scearan (A.S.), to cut.
Fleece - so called because the sheep has been fleeced or shorn of his wool.
Yarn - from gearn (A.S.), spun wool; thread prepared by spinning.
Flannel - formed from lana, wool; Welsh flannels are esteemed the best.
Shawls - from sala (Sanscrit), originally applied to a soft woollen covering, or tunic, worn by the Bedouins and Dervishes.
Worsted - so named from Worsted, a town in Norfolk, where this yarn was first spun.
Merinos - originally made of the wool of the Merino sheep, a Spanish variety.
Caterpillars - from pilus, hair, i.e. an insect having hair like a cat; it was formerly called by the French chatte-peleuse (hairy cat), or from two old French words, acat, food or provisions, more recently written cates, and piler, to rob or plunder, whence pillage.
Mulberry trees - in the sixth century of the Christian era the knowledge of the rearing of the silk-worm, and the production of silk, was brought into Europe from China by two missionaries.
QUESTIONS 30.
What materials for clothing are most extensively used?
Which of these are of vegetable origin?
Of what sort are the other two?
Give me a general description of the cotton plant.
Mention some of the fabrics formed from cotton.
Why is calico so named? - muslin? - gingham ? - linen ? - cambric?
What can you tell me about flax?
Describe the processes through which the wool has to pass previous to wearing.
Enumerate some of the fabrics made from woollen yarn.
Enumerate some of those made from worsted yarn.
Why is worsted so named?
What relation does silk bear to all other materials of clothing?
How is the material obtained?
Enumerate some silken fabrics.
What have the bleacher and dyer to do with the fabrics intended for dress?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
To what fabrics are the processes of bleaching and dyeing most commonly applied?
For what purpose are these fabrics bleached?
For what further operations are they thus prepared?
What difference is there in the time now required for bleaching linen, compared with the former state of the art?
To what is this favourable change owing?
Can you show the advantages arising from thus expediting the operation?
Was the art of dyeing known in the earlier ages?
Give me some instance that it was?
Whence do we obtain some of our valuable dyes?
Had the ancients these dyes?
How do you know that they had not?
Mention some of the foreign dyeing materials.
What native plants afford us dyes?
What minerals are used in dyeing?
What animal substances?
For what purpose are alum and solution of tin used by dyers?
SECTION IV. OF CLOTHING.
The making of dress gives employment to many thou.. sands of people, and to various trades.
The making of shoes and boots gives employment to the tanner, the currier, the lastmaker and the shoemaker. The tanner thickens the hide that has to be made into leather; the currier dresses the leather so as to make it hard or pliable, according to the purpose for which it is to be employed. The lastmaker shapes the blocks of wood upon which shoes are made, and the shoemaker shapes his materials according to the size of the foot. The leather employed in shoemaking is calf-skin, dog-skin, goat-skin, and seal-skin, for the upper leathers; and cow-hide for the soles. Gutta percha is also used for the soles of shoes.
The making of men's garments gives employment to the spinner, the weaver, the tailor, and the hatter. Wool and cotton-wool must be spun into threads and woven into "pieces" before they can be of service for clothing. The tailor cuts them into garments, according to the wants of his customers. The hatter shapes hats on a block, and covers them with beaver, with silk, or with other substances.
The making of women's dresses employs the dressmaker and the milliner. The dressmaker works in all kinds of fabrics of velvet, of satin, of silk, of worsted, of woollen, of linen, and of cotton. The milliner makes dresses for the head, such as bonnets and caps. The milliner and dressmaker use all kinds of cotton-thread and sewing-silks, buttons, ribbons, braid, cord, tape, gimp, edging, and velvet, for trimmings. Straw hats are generally a distinct manufacture. Bedfordshire arid Hertfordshire abound with manufactories where all articles of this material are produced.
TANNING. TANNIN. STRAW PLAIT.
Shoes and boots - It has been calculated, that in the article of shoes and boots £7,000,000 sterling are annually expended by the people of this country.
the tanner - leather - The tanning of leather is a chemical operation; it consists in the formation of a compound of the gelatine of the hide, and of a chemical liquid called tannin, which is yielded by the oak-bark. Many other barks and substances, English and foreign, contain tannin. When the gelatine of the hide chemically unites with the tannin, the process is complete. The operation of tanning formerly extended over many months, but, by the improvements chemistry has introduced, hides are now converted into leather in a few weeks.
straw hats - Formed of straw-plait, the straw of the wheat being grown on dry chalky lands, such as those about Dunstable. The middle part of the straw, above the last joint, is selected; it is cut into lengths of eight or ten inches, and then split by a machine. The Leghorn or Tuscan plait is the straw of a kind of bearded wheat, pulled when green, and then bleached.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 31.
Trades - from treddian (A.S.), to pursue a trodden path; occupations follow,
generally, a regular, trodden, or mechanical routine.
Shoes - from sceos (A.S.), shoes. Shoes (sandals) at first only protected the
sole of the foot from injury; the upper covering is a later improvement.
Boots - from botte (Fr.), a boot. Boots were originally only worn by horsemen to protect the legs.
Tanner - he derives his title from the name of the principal ingredient which he uses in converting skins into leather, namely tan. Tan is the bark of a tree; its chemical principle, tannin, is found in many other vegetable products.
currier - from corroyer (Fr.), to dress or curry leather; derived from corium
(Lat.), a hide.
Last-maker - last is probably from leisten (Ger.), to imitate; lasts should be
faithful moulds and imitations of the shape of the foot.
Gutta-percha - gutta means gum, and percha (pertcha) is the Malayan name of the tree from which the gum exudes. The tree abounds in the Malay peninsula and the neighbouring islands.
Hatter - hat is perhaps from huten(Ger.), to protect, or from heaf-an (A.S.), to
heave or raise. The hat protects the head, but must first be raised to it.
milliner - probably from Milan, a once flourishing town in Italy; perhaps from millinarius, a dealer in a thousand articles.
Fabrics - from fabrico, to frame, invent, make, or fabricate.
Velvet - from vellus, hair, nap; Its softness is owing to the loose pile of its
surface; its richness to the closeness of the pile threads. The different varieties of fustian are a kind of cotton velvet.
Satin - one of the many fabrics of silk, rendered more lustrous by being rolled
on heated cylinders when taken out of the loom.
QUESTIONS 31.
What do you mean by trade?
Mention some of the arts employed in the production of shoes and boots.
What is tan?
How are the different kinds of leather appropriated in the art of shoemaking?
Tell me something about gutta-percha.
What other tradesmen are employed upon the dress of men?
What trades are called into requisition for making women's dresses?
Name some of the fabrics used by the dressmaker.
What is the business of the milliner?
What articles does she require?
What is the derivation of velvet?
To what are its softness and richness owing?
What is satin?
What two counties give most employment to the manufacturer of straw plait for hats and bonnets?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How much money is said to be expended in this country in shoes and boots?
How much would this amount allow each individual to spend according to the last census?
In what does the operation of tanning consist?
By what materials is tannin yielded?
When is the process complete?
What saving of capital has arisen from improvements in the process?
Explaln this.
Where is the best straw for straw plait?
What part of the stem is selected for the plait?
What is the next operation?
What is the Leghorn or Tuscan plait ?
Are any other grasses used for straw plait?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Next to food and clothing cleanliness contributes most essentially to the health of man.
Cleanliness, to be effectual, must extend to our persons, our garments, and our habitations.
In order to keep our persons clean it is necessary that we should bathe in cold or tepid water at least once a week. Those who cannot bathe should use the flesh-brush, with or without water, daily; and beside this, they should use either the flesh-brush or the sponge with water at least twice a week over the whole body.
A process of insensible perspiration is continually going on, and is essential to health; it forms a thin scaly coating, but if it be allowed to remain, it adheres to the skin, and impedes the healthy action of the body. Beside washing, it is necessary for health that the clothing worn next the skin should be changed frequently. Without such precaution disease is likely to arise.
Cleanliness in our habitations is as important to health as cleanliness in our persons. A room in which dust and dirt are allowed to accumulate is both disagreeable and injurious. A room insufficiently ventilated is not only oppressive but unwholesome. And bed-rooms, in which we spend so many hours of our lives, ought invariably to be clean, airy, and light by day, or we cannot expect to enjoy health in them long.
Besides the advantage to the health, personal neatness requires that the skin, the hair, the teeth, and the nails should be kept clean; that the different garments worn should be suitable for the season, and that they should be kept free from soils, and accumulations of dust and dirt.
PORES OF THE SKIN. USE OF CLOTHING. EFFECTS OF BAD AIR
Insensible perspiration - If you cause your warm hand to approach the surface of a pane of cold glass, you will perceive this perspiration condensed upon the glass; if left upon the skin, it forms a mealy covering which can only be cleared off by washing. When cleared off, the pores of the skin act naturally, and let out the perspiration; when left on, disease is produced. There are about 2,800 pores on every square inch of the skin.
Clothing - Not intended to give warmth to the body, but to prevent the natural heat of the body from escaping; the perspiration is retained to some extent in all our clothes, but especially in those worn next the skin; hence the necessity of clean clothing to replace that which has been worn.
Insufficiently ventilated - if the air in an inhabited room is not frequently renewed, it will soon become unfit to sustain life. If you place a short end of a lighted candle on the table, and put a tumbler over it so as to exclude the air, the flame will become dim as the air is consumed, and will soon go out. The lamp of life cannot burn brightly without fresh air, any more than the candle.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 32.
cleanliness - from claenan (A.S.), to purify, to make chaste.
Persons - persona, probably from prosopon (Gr.), face, character.
Garments - from garnishment, to adorn thoroughly; and this from gearwian (A.S.), to furnish or fill with; as a gardener covers his naked land with a variegated covering of plants, herbs and flowers.
Bathe - from bathos (Gr.), depth; as deep water.
tepid-from tepidus, lukewarm.
Sponge - from spongos (Gr.), the porous skeleton of a marine animal.
Perspiration - from per, through, and spiro, to exude; the perspiration exudes through pores in the skin.
esential -from esse, to be, essens, the being or core of anything; necessary.
Adheres - from ad, to, and haereo, to stick.
Impedes - from in, against, and pes, pedis, the foot; an obstruction.
Precautions - from prae, before, cautio, care, provision; taking heed beforehand.
Disease - from dis, without, and ease; deprived of ease or comfort.
Habitations - that is our houses, which are not only our places of shelter, of ease, and of comfort, but also the places in which our family affections are centred.
accumulate - from ad, upon, and cumulo, cumulare, to heap up, to increase.
injurious-from in, not, and jus, juris, right; what is not right is hurtful.
ventilated - from ventus, the wind; whence comes ventilo, ventilare, to blow, to fan; ventilated is to be refreshed with cool air.
so many hours - our climate promotes the home feeling of Englishmen; during three months of the year the thermometer ranges below 40 degrees, and for another three months below 50 degrees; added to which we have an average of 178 wet days out of the 365.
Invariably - from in, not, and varius, changeable; without any change.
Advantage - from avantage (Fr.), as it was formerly written in this country.
QUESTIONS 32.
Why is cleanliness a duty?
How can cleanliness only be effectual?
By what means can we keep our persons thoroughly, clean?
If circumstances prevent bathing, what mode should we adopt?
What is requisite besides washing?
What process, essential to health, is going on in our bodies which requires that the akin should be regularly cleansed?
Why is cleanliness in our houses necessary?
What other provision should be found in our dwellings?
What is the meaning of ventilation?
In what state is the air of an unventilated room?
What are the characteristics of a wholesome bedroom?
What other consideration should impel us to cleanliness?
Mention some other requirements of personal neatness.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How can you prove that perspiration is continually passing through the pores of the skin?
Why does it form upon the glass?
Under what condition would it not form upon the glass?
What is the evil effect of allowing the perspiration to harden on the skin?
What good results from washing it off?
How many of these pores are there on a square foot of the skin?
What is the intention of clothing?
What necessity is there for changing our clothing?
What kind of room is unhealthy?
How could it be made healthy?
What is the effect of breathing vitiated air?
Why do we require supplies of fresh air?
How can you prove that lights will not burn without air?
Why does the candle go out under the tumbler?
SECTION V. OF HABITATIONS, ETC.
The habitations of beasts are caves, dens, burrows, forests, and the branches of trees; but men, though they sometimes resort to such abodes, usually live in houses or in tents.
The first human habitations we read of, formed by the hands of man, were a city built by Cain, and called Enoch, after the name of his son. A little later we read of tents being made use of for the first time, also by a descendant of Cain, named Jabal.
Cities and towns of the present day consist of a number of houses built together; they are usually governed by a local magistrate who has power to punish offenders.
Palaces are large houses erected for the sovereign, and for the princes of a realm. Mansions are spacious dwelling houses occupied by the nobility and gentry. Houses, commonly so called, consist of several rooms joined together appropriated to the various wants of a family; such as bedrooms, sitting-rooms, drawing (or withdrawing), rooms, libraries, studies, kitchens, cellars, &c. These rooms are generally connected by passages, and the upper rooms are reached by flights of stairs.
The rooms upon each floor are called in England, "stories," and in Scotland, "flats." In more extensive residences they are called "suites." Cottages are small houses; huts and cabins are the lowest sort of cottages.
Noblemen used formerly to live in castles, which were massive buildings strongly protected, surrounded by walls and a ditch; the ditch was called a "moat" or a "fosse."
Those who occupy only a part of a house are said to live in "apartments;" or in "lodgings," if sleeping-rooms are principally meant.
EARLY DWELLINGS. RISE OF TOWNS.
Cities and towns - The first want of men is food, the second clothing, the third habitations. The convenience of people living together on one spot, but in separate dwellings, was discovered early in the history of mankind. In the time of Job, houses were built of mud or of unburned bricks; for it is said of the wicked, in the dark they dig through houses." The bricks made by the Israelites in Egypt were also unburnt, a straw was used in them, but at the building of Babel, burnt bricks were employed. The houses of early times were probably built without upper stories. Boundaries and defences would be built round a town, and it would be placed under some kind of government, perhaps of a chief chosen by the inhabitants, perhaps of the elders of the place. Towers and places of security would also be erected, and as men improved in arts, the use of stone and of timber, and the invention of tools for working these materials, would follow. As wealth increased, more costly habitations and temples for religious worship and civil purposes would be built, as well as store houses for grain, and for the requirements of commerce.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 33.
Beasts - from bestia, an animal; applied emphatically to quadruped.
Caves - from cavus, hollow; formed from caveo, cavi, cautum, to beware.
Dens - from den (A.S.), a valley, a rugged place of shelter.
Burrows - from beorgan (A.S),to save or defend; whence byrgen, a tomb; holes in the ground which protect animals.
Resort - from re again, and sors, sortis, lot or appointment; hence to have recourse to one's allotted place.
Abode - from bidan (A. S1), to dwell, tarry.
Houses - from hiwisce (A.S), a family, a household.
Tents - from tendo, tetendi, to stretch; tents are canvas stretched on poles with cords.
Descendant - from de, down, and ,scando, to climb; literally one who climbs down; one who follows in succession of time from generation to generation.
Cities - from cio, citum, to call; cities are places where citations are made. in causes, civil and ecclesiastical. In England a city is ordinarily the seat of a bishop's see.
towns - from tun (A.S.), a hedge or fence; towns as well as cities were formerly walled in.
local - from locus, a place.
Magistrate - from magister, a master, a public officer.
Offenders - from ob, against, and fendo, fendere, to defend; those agsinst whom society should be defended.
Palaces - from palatium, a hill in Rome upon which the residence of Evander, and afterwards of Romulus, was built; hence used as a prince's residence.
Sovereign - from souverain (Fr.), a king, queen, elector, &c.
Princes - from princeps, a chief; those of first rank in a state.
Realm - from realme (Span.), a kingdom.
Mansions - from mansio, a dwelling of magnificence.
Nobility - from nobilis, high-born; of a family renowned for goodness and largeness of soul.
Gentry - from gent, a people, a tribe; applied to the better educated classes, those next to nobles.
Libraries - from libri, books; places where books are kept,
Studies - from studium, places for reading.
Stairs - from stager (A.S.), that by which we ascend steps
Cabins - from cavea, a hole; a small house.
Moat - probably from moite (Fr.), wet.
Fosse - from fossa, a ditch, an evacuated place, a trench.
QUESTIONS 33.
What are the usual habitatlons of beasts?
By what names are the dwellings of mankind known?
What is the name of the first city we read of?
What was the relationship that subsisted between Enoch and Adam?
What sort of dwellings do we next read of?
What are cities and towns?
Who generally dwell in palaces?
What are mansions?
Of what apartments do houses consist?
How are these rooms connected?
How are the floors reached?
What are " stories"?
What are they called in Scotland?
What are cottages and cabins?
What were noblemen's residences in ancient times called?
Describe the peculiarity of those structures.
What do you understand by "apartments," and what by "lodgings"?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is man's first want ? - his second? - his third?
Why is it convenient for many people to live near each other?
Why would it be inconvenient if they had not separate habitations?
Of what materials were some of the early dwellings of man made?
How can you prove this?
At what building were burnt bricks used?
Why do we conclude that the bricks made by the Israelites in Egypt were not burnt?
Why would a town, in early times, have boundaries and defences?
What materials would come into use as men improved in knowledge and in skill?
When would more costly buildings be erected?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 34. Building Materials.
The materials of most importance in building are timber, stone, bricks, tiles, slates, iron, lead, glass, &c.: the procuring, preparing, or manufacturing of these materials employs a large amount of labour.
Timber grows in forests; it is cut into various sizes at the saw-mill, and is employed for the roofs, the floors, the beams, the doors, the window-frames, &c. Oak and deal are principally used for these purposes. Stone is obtained from quarries; it is usually found in large beds or layers, from which it is dug out in blocks. These blocks are hewn and squared, to form the stones for the walls of a building. Bricks and tiles are made of clay; they are moulded in a frame and baked in a kiln or a stack, and are used in various parts of a building. The walls of many houses are built entirely of bricks cemented together with mortar. Mortar is made of lime - a powder obtained from burnt limestone - which, being mixed with sand and water, sets very hard when dry. Slates are obtained from slate-quarries; they are a hard kind of stone that can be split into very thin plates; they are much used for roofing purposes.
Iron, the most useful of all the metals, is found as ore or stone; it is smelted in a hot furnace, hammered, and made into tools and implements for mechanics and agriculturists. Nearly all the tools which workmen require are made of iron hardened into steel. Iron is extensively employed in buildings. Some bridges are made almost wholly of iron; it is also used for balconies, rails, pillars, bolts, grates, keys, nails, &c. Lead is ore obtained from the lead-mines and smelted; it is much used in building. Glass, which admits light and excludes wind and rain, is made of sea-sand and of pearl-ash melted by intense heat.
MATERIALS USED IN BUILDING
Timber - The teacher will direct attention - to the forests of Norway, Sweden, Canada, &c. - to the employment of people in cutting down timber, conveying it, &c.
Stone - to the use of granite, limestones, and sandstones, in building-quarrying
- blasting rocks - point out towns built of stone. Why? Of brick, and why? bricks - to the situation of beds of clay - present process of brick-making.
Slates - to the quarries of Bangor, and those in Cumberland - the geological situation of the slate rocks.
Iron - to the ore - the furnace - the foundry - slag - hammered iron - rolled iron - rod-iron - cable-iron - the smith's shop-steel.
lead-to the mines of Derbyshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, Yorkshire, Northumberland, &c. Carbonate of lead.
Glass - to the inconvenience of admitting air or excluding light, before the introduction of glass - its discovery - its manufacture - its extensive uses, &c The Useful Arts. Dwelling Houses. Parker, Strand.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 34.
Timber - from timbrian (A.S.), to construct.
Stone - probably from histemi, histenai (Gr.), to stand.
Brick - probably from imbrico, imbricare, to cover with tiles.
Slater - probably from slitan (A.S.), to divide, or from scylaa, to scale or separate.
Glass - from glisnian (A.S.), to shine, to be transparent.
Quarries - the derivation seems doubtful. Bailey derives it from the Fr. carriere or quarriere, a place where stones are dug out; Ash, from the Irish carrig, a stone mine.
Hewn - from heawan (A.S.), to cut or hack.
Clay - from kleben (Ger.), to stick, clay being of a clammy or sticky nature.
Ore - a mineral body containing metal. The Danes introduced a coin among the Anglo-Saxons which was called "ore."
Smelted - from smoelta (Swed.), to melt or reduce ores to a liquid.
Furnace - from furnax, an enclosed fireplace; enclosed for the purpose of concentrating the heat.
Mechanics - from mechanicus, a contriver, a skilled workman. Mechane Is Greek for machine.
Agriculturist - from ager, agri, a field, and colo, colui, cultum, to toil; a cultivator or tiller.
Steel - probably from stel (Swed.), hard, stiff; steel is hardened iron.
bridges - a ridge of wood or masonry connecting land separated by a river.
Balcony - probably from balck (Ger.), a balk or beam, of which the floor was made.
Mines - from mino, minare, to lead, to pursue; mines are subterraneous ducts or passages leading to the treasures of the earth.
Admits - from ad, to, and mitto, mittere, to send; to suffer, to go.
excludes - from ex, out, and claudo, claudere, to shut; to shut out.
Pearl-ash - calcined potassium, a metal which forms the base Of potash.
Intense - from intensus, stretched to its utmost extent.
QUESTIONS 34.
Enumerate the most important of the materials used in buildings.
How do they give employment to work-people?
State some of the uses of timber in building.
How is stone obtained?
Describe the process of making tiles and bricks.
By what means are bricks united so as to form a wall?
Bow is this cement made?
Whence are slates obtained, and how are they applied?
Which is the most useful metal?
In what state is it found, and how is it adapted for use?
What two classes are mainly dependent on iron for their respective operations?
In what way are they dependent?
Mention a few of the more important applications of iron; - lead; - glass.
Why is glass peculiarly adapted for windows?
QUESTI0NS ON FOOT NOTES.
Whence do we obtain large supplies of timber?
What different classes of workmen are engaged in the timber trade?
What kinds of stone are used in building?
How are they obtained?
What workmen are employed in obtaining and working atone?
Can you mention any town mostly built of stone? - of brick?
Can you account for the material used?
Where are the chief slate quarries?
Can you point out any peculiarity in these rocks?
Where is iron ore obtained?
Through what processes must it pass to become iron?
Mention the localities of some of the lead mines.
To what building purposes is lead applied?
What great convenience do glass windows afford?
Can you relate the occurrence which is said to have led to the discovery of glass?
SECTION V. OF HABITATIONS, ETC.
Lesson 35. Occupations of Man.
Division of labour secures both cheapness and excellence of workmanship. In solitary settlements, such as those in the back-woods of America, every man has to do every thing for himself. He has to be his own builder, his own, farmer, his own butcher, &c. But in communities the cultivation of the earth employs the farmer, the killing of animals the butcher, the making of dress the tailor, the milliner, and the dressmaker, and the making of shoes the shoemaker.
The brazier makes metal utensils for kitchen use, while other men are digging the ores from which the metals are obtained, and others are smelting or hammering the iron from which tools are fabricated. While the potter is forming cups, mugs, and dishes, other workmen are preparing the clay, the flint, the coal, the lead, and the colours, which he requires.
All workmen require tools and implements which they cannot make themselves so well as those whose especial employment it is to make them. While the cutler is making knives, axes, planes, and scissors; the butcher, the tailor, the baker, the shoemaker, and the hatter are all engaged in providing for him and other workmen the different articles of food and clothing which they require for daily use.
The earth yields her produce of fruits and vegetables under the cultivation of the farmer and the gardener, and her mineral treasures to the labours and skill of the miner.
The clockmaker's employment is a very useful one, as all the operations of workmen are regulated by time; the hours appointed for labour, for rest, for meals, arid for recreation are all indicated by the clock and the watch. Thus in a community each man works not only for his own support, but also for the support of all the rest.
ADVANTAGES OF A DIVISION OF LABOUR.
Division of labour - This principle must have been applied in its more limited. use in the very early stages of society. "Abel was a keeper of sheep; Cain was a tiller of the ground." Jabal invented tents; Jubal, musical instruments; and Tubal Cain was an artificer in brass and iron. It is thus evident, that even before the Flood men felt the convenience of restricting themselves to one occupation.
In communities - The division of labour, above alluded to, resulted from men receiving that they could thus make a greater profit of their Labour, and that they could labour more effectually than if they pursued several occupations.
Each min works, &c. - As a matter of convenience; at the same time, the natural law acts - by serving ourselves, we best serve others - for greater skill is acquired, more work is done, time is saved, and the welfare of the community, as well as that of the individual, is increased. The exchange of produce for produce is "barter," and the first form of trading; when a medium representing value is established, commodities are exchanged for money - that is "buying and selling."
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS
LESSON 35.
Division - from divido, divisi, divisum, to sever, to distribute among many.
Secures - from securus; from sine, without, and cura, care; without care or apprehension of danger, safe.
Cheapness - from cypan (A.S.), to traffic; the word was formerly applied to purchases, whether the prices were high or low; now used only for the latter.
Excellence - from exce1lo, excelsum, to ascend, mount up, to be eminent.
Utensils - utensi1e (Fr.), from utor, usus, to have the benefit of; useful instruments.
Metal - from meta ta alla (Gr.), after the others. "Where one vein is discovered," says Pliny, "there is another found not far off;" hence the Greeks call them metalla. The number of metals and semi-metals at present known is fifty-one.
Tools - from tol (A.S.), an instrument.
Cutler - a maker of sharp or cutting instruments. The first person who established himself as a cutler in London was one Richard Matthew, in the year 1562.
Axes - from axine (Gr.), a hatchet, or derived from agnumi, future, axo, to break.
Scissors - from scissus, the past participle of scindo, scidi, scissum, to cut, to cleave.
Yields - from geldan (A.S.), to render, to pay, give up.
Treasures - from thazar (Heb.), store, goods laid up; from atzar (Lieb.), to lay up.
Operations - from opus, operis, a work.
Hours - from hora (Gr), a defined portion of time; from or (Heb.), light.
Recreation - from re, again, and creo, creatum, to produce, renew, revive.
Indicated - from indico, indicare, to signify or point out.
Clock - so called from its clocking, or clucking noise. The most ancient clock on record, with wheel and balances, is that made by Richard Wallinfort, abbot of St. Albans, in A.D. 1326.
Watch - (same as wake), wacian (A.S.), to be vigilant; an instrument by which the passing of time may be watched. The first watches seen in England were brought from Germany, in 1577.
QUESTIONS 35.
By what means may cheapness and excellence of workmanship be combined?
Where is division of labour impracticable?
What are the disadvantages of the pioneers of labour in the backwoods?
Row do they contribute to the general good?
In what state of human existence are numerous trades necessary?
What are the advantages of this condition?
While the brazier is following his trade, how are his wants provided for?
While the cutler is making tools for other workmen, who is providing for his wants?
How is the surface of the earth made to yield its treasures of roots, fruits, grain, &c.?
How is the interior made to yield its valuable ores and metals?
By what means is labour regulated?
What is the necessary result of labour in a community?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Division of labour in its more limited sense means merely that one man should attend to one business, another to another business - Can you give some very early instances of its application?
From what conviction did it result?
Is the principle still followed?
Explain how.
Can you prove that we serve others by serving ourselves?
Then - man who is a shoemaker does his work more comfortably, and makes a larger profit, than if he followed many other trades besides?
Explain how this is the case?
And how does he thus best serve the man who is not a shoemaker?
What would you call it if he gave one pair of shoes to the tanner for sufficient leather to make two pair?
Is this practice followed?
Why not?
What does money represent?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 36. Trades Employed in Building.
The erection of a house gives employment to a great number of persons and trades. If one man had to perform all the operations, to procure all the materials, and to make all the tools he wanted, it would either never be completed, or it would take so long a time, that he would prefer living in the hut his forefathers occupied. To cut the wood, to hew the stones, to make the bricks; to procure the limestone, and mix the mortar; to dig, split, and square the slates; to melt the iron ore, and to forge it into bars; and to procure the salt and sand to make glass, would only be a preparation for labours more tedious, and of greater difficulty. He would have to build the walls, to form the wood into the roof, floors, doors, and frames; to make and fix the locks, the bolts, and the hinges; to cut the glass into panes, and fix them in the window frames. All this would be an impossible labour for the hands and skill of one man, besides greatly increasing both the danger and the expense of building.
Men therefore learn different trades. The mason or the bricklayer builds the walls; the carpenter forms the roof, the doors, and the window-frames; while the slater prepares the slates, and the locksmith makes the locks and bolts. These men being accustomed to their respective labours, will get through the work, not only cheaper, but better, than any one individual who has had but little experience in such a variety of occupations, and who is unacquainted with the nature of different materials, and tools, and the art of using them.
It is therefore better for a man to learn one trade well and become an expert workman in it, than to know several trades indifferently.
DIVISION OF LABOUR ITS BENEFITS.
If one man, &c. - It would be impossible for a man in a civilised country to supply all the wants of his family by his individual labour. Some must plough, sow, and gather, others build, others procure materials, others make tools, others weave, others make clothing, furniture, &c. If each man had to supply all his wants, we should soon have to live again as our forefathers lived, in rude huts or tents, become hunters, and fishers, and wear the skins of animals and while such a change was taking place, most of the people would die of famine.
Different trades - The consequence is a great increase in the quantity of work, owing to three circumstances: first, to the increase of dexterity in every particular workman; secondly, to the saving of time which would be lost in passing from one species of work to another; and, lastly, to the invention of machines, which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many.
One trade - A smith accustomed to make nails, but whose whole business has not been that of a nailer, can make only from 800 to 1,000 a-day; whilst a lad, who has never exercised any other trade, can make upwards of 2,300 a day. Smith's Wealth Of Nations.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 36.
Erection - from erigo, erexi, erectum, to build up.
Employment - from implico, implicavi, to engage, to occupy.
Completed - from con, together, and pleo, pletum, to fill up.
Forge - from forger (Fr.), to frame, to make by the hammer. The hammering rollers, and shears at present employed in forging are admirably constructed,
Locks - from loc (A.S.), a lock; that which fastens in.
Hinges - from the word hang; the door is suspended, or hung on its hinges.
Panes - from pan (Fr.), a panel; panes are glass panels.
Window - probably compounded (according to some provincial pronunciations)
wind-door; the door for the admission of the air.
Impossible - from in, not, and possibilis, derived from possum, to be able; that
which cannot be.
Mason - from maison (Fr.), a house; applied to the builder of the walls of a house.
Carpenter - probably from carpentum, a coach or waggon, is derived carpentarius, a wheelwright; whence carpenter.
Smith - i. e., the smiter. Smith was formerly a general term for all whose
employments required the use of a hammer.
Unacquainted - from un, not, and acquaint, made known to.
Using - from utor, usus, to use; employing with skill.
Expert - from the same origin as experience, ex, and perior; thoroughly skilled.
Indifferently - from in, not, and differo, differens, to bear apart, to select; not deserving of distinction, selection, or preference.
QUESTIONS 36.
Are many trades required in the building of a house?
What would be the probable consequence if one man undertook the various labours?
Enumerate the different occupations in which he would have to engage.
Do you think It is not possible for one man to do all this?
What is the practical conclusion to which men have been impelled by these difficulties?
Name a few of the different trades.
How does this system practically benefit society?
Why is it not wise for a man to attempt to learn and practise several trades?
What difficulties would men practising several trades continually meet with?
What evil result would ensue?
Should every workman aim at perfection in the execution of his own work?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Could one man unassisted by the labour of others supply all the wants of his
family?
What is the actual practice at the present day?
How then do these individuals get all their wants supplied?
What would be the result of all individuals attempting to supply all their
own wants?
Illustrate this by a single instance.
What is the result of men following different employments?
Mention the first circumstance that would lead to such an increase of production.
Why would he require dexterity?
Mention the second circumstance.
Mention the third.
If a machine makes labour more easy and expeditious, it must produce cheapness - Why is this desirable?
Illustrate the advantage of keeping to one employment.
SECTION V. OF HABITATIONS, ETC.
Some furniture is indispensable in a house. But there are many articles of furniture that contribute to comfort which my be found in the poorest habitations.
Chairs are required to rest the body upon; sofas and couches to recline upon; tables to place food and other articles upon; drawers to contain articles of clothing; cupboards to store small articles in; cabinets for collections of curiosities in nature and art. All these and other articles of furniture are made by the cabinet-maker, who works in costly kinds of wood, and who sometimes carves or ornaments his work richly, thus increasing the value of the articles. The furniture of a bedroom employs many workmen besides the cabinet-maker, to furnish beds, mattresses, hangings, blankets, sheets, counterpanes, &c. The manufacture of carpets, table-covers, and linen for various uses also employs many more. The iron, brass, and tin articles in every house are made by the smith, the brass-founder, and the tinner; and the heavy iron articles, such as boilers, stoves, grates, ovens, and fenders, furnish work for the iron-founder.
Every mechanic requires other workmen to provide him with materials. If colliers were to cease working, all trades requiring fire must cease when the stock of coal on hand was exhausted. A scarcity of cotton from bad crops, stops many cotton factories. When people cannot afford to purchase either the necessaries or the luxuries of life, there is but little demand in this and other countries for manufactured articles, and many workpeople are thrown out of employment. The luxuries of life are all those things which are not necessary for our actual existence. Necessaries are such articles as maintain life.
THE POOR SUFFER MOST WHEN SUPPLIES FAIL.
Indispensible - Unless we should be content to sit on the ground, requiring only a few coarse mats, or the skins of animals, and to have beds of dried leaves or grass.
If colliers were to cease working - Their families would have no means of maintenance, the price of coal would advance, the rich would buy as long as any could be had, the poor must go without, manufactories would cease working, and the poor people would obtain no wages even to buy food.
Scarcity of cotton - In this case the mills work only half time, or quarter time; the owners of the mills suffer; the poor workers have reduced wages; the price of cotton goods advances to the comparatively few purchasers; and the shopkeepers, who sell the necessaries of life, suffer also from the small amount paid in wages.
Luxuries of life - Articles that are not in constant demand bear a high price; their production employs artists and scientific men, and requires costly materials and delicate workmanship; there are, however, minor luxuries of civilisation and decencies of life which nearly every member of the community enjoys.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 37.
Furniture - furniture in ancient times, which was attached to the dwelling, and not belonging to occupiers, was called "standing-house;" now fixtures.
Indispensable - from in, not, and dispenso, dispensare, to distribute or set aside; that which cannot be done without.
Articles - from articulus, the diminutive of artes, a joint; separate, distinct, and lesser conveniences.
Poorest - anciently written povere, from pauvre (Fr.), having but little, barren, sterile.
Chairs - from cyran (A.S.), to move or turn about; chairs are moveable, not fixed seats. Car is abridged from chair.
Required - from re, again, and quaero, quaerere, to ask for; necessary, oft in demand.
sofa - an Arabic name for a low seat, originally applied to a stone bench in front of the house, on which visitors sat in order.
Couches - from coucher(Fr.), to lie down.
Recline - from re, back, and clino, from klino (Gr.), to lean; to lean back or against. The Easterns usually recline at meals.
Tables - from tabula, a board. The tables of the ancient Britains, Gauls, and Celte were round.
Drawers - the appropriatenes8 of the name is obvious.
Cabinets - the diminutive of cabin.
Curiosities - from curiosus, careful, from cura, care; things remarkable or scarce, and to be taken care of.
Carves - from ceorfan (A.S.), to cut.
Value - from valeo, valere, to be worth; hence the estimated worth of anything.
Mattresses - from mat, which comes from mithan (A.S.), a covering.
Hangings - from hangian (A. S.), to suspend.
Sheets - from sceat (A.S.), derived from scytan, to throw, to spread over.
Counterpanes - from contre point (Fr.), the back, or quilting stitch; applied also to the article itself, it being back-stitched.
Carpets - probably from Cairo tapets, because some of the best in early times were manufactured at Cairo; they were formerly used as coverings for tables.
Boilers - from bullio, derived from ballo (Gr.), to cast up bubbles.
Purchase - from pourchasser (Fr.), to obtain by payment, not by natural or social right.
Luxuries - from luxus, loose, derived from luxo, to loosen, dissolve restraint, to be lavish. Laws against luxury have been passed in different countries.
QUESTIONS 37.
What articles are indispensable in a house?
What are those articles which are absolutely necessary useful for?
Describe the use of chairs - of sofas- of tables - of drawers - of cupboards.
What do you understand by nature in contradistinction to art?
What do you mean by curiosities?
How are the articles of the cabinet-maker augmented in price?
What other articles of manufacture are required for furnishing bed-roams? - other rooms?
What articles are made by the turner? by the smith? - by the brass-founder?
By what circumstance is the labour in cotton factories injuriously affected?
What is the difference between luxuries and necessaries?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
To what shifts should we be reduced if we had no furniture?
What deplorable circumstances would follow from our colliers ceasing to procure coal?
Who would suffer the most? - and why?
What is the consequence of a scarcity of cotton?
Who again suffer the most?
In what various ways?
What other sufferings do they undergo besides those resulting from reduced
wages?
What temptations beset them?
What do you mean by the luxuries of life?
Why do such articles command a high price?
Are there any other circumstances that enhance the price of some articles?
What minor luxuries of life are enjoyed by nearly all in a civilized community?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
When a person is about to build a house, if he has no land where he wishes to erect it, he purchases as much as be requires for his purpose. He then procures a drawing of the plan of his intended house on paper, with the number and size of the rooms, and the elevations or outward appearance he wishes it to have. This plan he either undertakes to get executed himself, or he agrees with a contractor who executes the whole or any part, as the proprietor may resolve. If the house is to be built of stone, the proprietor or contractor engages for a supply from a quarry, and employs stone-masons to dress the stones and to lay them in mortar for the walls. He also sends to the lime-burner for lime, and to the sandpits for sand, and employs labourers to wait upon his workmen.
Lime-stone is a chalky or calcareous earth; after it is burnt in a kiln, and saturated with water, it falls into a white powder, which is lime.
If the house is to be built of bricks, the builder orders bricks at the brick-yard, and employs bricklayers instead of stone-masons to lay the bricks with mortar. The walls are built, leaving spaces for the doors, the windows, and the fire-places, according to the plan. He uses common bricks for the inside, where they will be covered with plaster, and smooth bricks for the outside walls. After the walls are built they are coated with plaster inside, which is lime mixed with cow-hair, and a very little sand. When dry, the walls are white-washed, coloured, papered, or painted. The wood-work of the house, outside and inside, is painted to preserve it from the weather. To give a brick house the appearance of stone, its outside is covered with a kind of cement called stucco, squared to imitate blocks of stone.
ON PLANS OF BUILDINGS. SCALE DRAWING.
A drawing of the plan - This drawing is made to represent every apartment, door, window, &c, according to a certain proportion, or on a scale, showing, much smaller, the relative size of each part. It shows the thickness and height of the different walls without and within, the spaces occupied by passages, by stairs, by fire-places, by flues, &c. Thus it is easy, in imagination, to pass from one part of the house to another on the plan, and to obtain a correct relative idea of the shape and size of the whole. According to the scale of the drawing, a quarter of an inch on the plan may represent a foot; if, then, a room is shown on the plan, in length from wall to wall 18 quarters, and in breadth 14 quarters, it is easy to judge of the actual size in feet that the room is intended to be; so with regard to the height, 12 quarters or 3 inches on the plan, would represent 12 feet. The architect adapts his plans throughout to the style of building required, and adds such ornamentation as is suitable to it. He would not put Gothic ornaments on a plain Grecian building, nor the reverse.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 38.
Drawing - from dragan (A.S.), to draw or pull; a drawing consists of lines and curves drawn out their proper length, so as to accurately delineate the subject.
Intended - from intendo, intendere, to stretch the mind to; designed.
Wishes - from wiscan (A.S), to desire.
Executed - from ex, out, arid sequor, secutus, to follow; to follow out or perform certain plans.
Proprietor - from proprietas, belonging to the proper owner; derived from proprius, one's own.
Resolve - from re, again, and solvo, to loosen, is compounded resolve, to unfold, to lay open what is obscure, whence to resolve; to make up one's mind, to decide, to fix upon.
Contractor - from con, together, and traho, tractum, to draw; to agree so as to draw the several proposals to a bargain or settlement.
Engaqes - from engager (Fr.), to undertake to do any thing, or to bind or pledge one's self to do certain work.
Supply - from suppleo, suppletum, to fill up; quantity required.
Chalky - from calx, limestone: see calcareous.
Calcareous - from calx, lime, deduced from chalix (Gr.) a fragment of stone; stones of which mortar is made.
Saturated - from saturo, to fill, to cram, deduced from satto, sattein (Gr.), to stuff closely, to fill with as much as can be received.
Doors - from thura (Gr.), a door; supposed to be the same word as through (to admit through), though differently spelt.
Plaster - from plasso, or platto (Gr.), to mould or fashion; hence plaster, that which may be altered or moulded at pleasure.
cement-from cementum, that by which fragments of stone are held together.
stucco - so called because it is laid or stuck on the walls. It is generally employed for decorative purposes, and it is of considerable antiquity.
imitate - from mimeomai (Gr.), to represent, to make after the likeness of the original.
QUESTIONS 38.
What is the first step a man has to take who desires to build a house?
What is his second proceeding?
What is his third step?
What is the contractor's business?
How does he proceed to execute his contract?
What do you know about limestone?
In the erection of walls, what is to be observed with respect to doors and windows?
With what material are the walls covered inside?
What is plaster made of?
What is next to be done to the walls?
How is the wood-work treated?
Mention some of the parts of a house for which wood is used?
In what parts is iron used?
How is the appearance of stone given to a brick house?
What is stucco?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is represented on the plan of a house?
What particulars are shown on this plan?
With such a plan before you, what is it easy to do?
What correct information do you thus obtain?
What do you mean by drawing to a scale?
If a room is intended to be 18 feet by 14 feet, how might it be shown on such a plan?
State various scales on which it might be shown.
If a wall is intended to be 18 inches thick, bow thick would it be shown on a scale of a quarter of an inch to a foot?
What professional men draw plans?
What employers should be able to understand them?
Os it desirable for any class of work men to understand plans of buildings?
Of what benefit is it to such workpeople?
SECTION VI. OF EDUCATION, ETC.
Schools are established for the purpose of giving instruction. There are schools formed for instructing children, others for instructing youth, and some for instructing men and women.
Schools for instructing children from two years old and upwards are called infant schools. There are other schools for boys and girls; and higher schools, generally called colleges, for the instruction of young men in languages, and in the arts and sciences.
The subjects generally taught in schools are reading, writing, geography, history, arithmetic, and languages. The arts of music and drawing are taught in many schools. The sciences of mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, natural philosophy and of mechanics are also taught in some schools.
A university is an establishment formed by an act of parliament for the encouragement of learning. It has the power of conferring titles or degrees on men of learning, who must be first examined by professors appointed for that purpose.
When we are at school the master is our instructor; he directs us what books to read, and what subjects to study; he also informs his assistants what is to be taught to the different classes, and how they are to teach; he arranges our occupations, and the hours for changing our lessons.
It is the duty of the master to correct habits of idleness and carelessness. It is the duty of the pupils to conform to the directions of their teachers, to behave respectfully to them, to give attention to their lessons, and to act with kindness to each other.
The great reward of attention and diligence is increased knowledge.
ELEMENTS OF LEARNING.
Reading - The first branch of instruction; because so much information is accessible in books, reading is consequently a means of obtaining knowledge. A gardener's son, himself only a labourer, but who became in after life a learned man, bad, at the age of eighteen, conquered all the difficulties of arithmetic and geometry, and had learned French and Latin. On being asked how be had accomplished all this without a teacher, he said that "a servant had taught him to read ten years before," and added, "it seems to me that we may learn everything when we know the twenty-four letters of the alphabet."
Writing - By reading we acquire the knowledge of others; by writing, we make known our own ideas; we generally express our thoughts with more exactness in writing than in speaking; we also thus communicate with distant parties.
Geography - A knowledge of the earth we live upon is necessary to all; we cannot read a newspaper nor a history without requiring this knowledge, in order to understand the relative positions and distances of places.-( Continued.)
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 39.
School - from schole (Gr.), rest from physical labour, which affords opportunities for literary study. The term came to be applied, says Pliny, to "the walking places, where learned clerks and gentlemen, favourers of learning, were wont to meet." It is now applied to places where children or uneducated persons are taught.
Instruction - from in, within, and struo, structum, to build; instruction is the building of knowledge within the mind.
Colleges - collegium, a society or corporation, from con, together, and lego, I send or bequeath. A college is a place where a number of persons arc collected to enjoy together the advantages of an endowment.
Languages - from lingua, the tongue, and ago, agere, to move, in allusion to the movements of the tongue when speaking. Languages are the various kinds of speech.
Arts - i.e., the seven liberal arts; viz.- grammar, logic, rhetoric (the ancient Trivium), and arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music (the ancient Quadrivium).
Sciences - scientia, from scio, ivi, or ii, itum, I know by myself, or by information
Subjects - from sub, under, && jactus, laid; brought or laid under examination.
Reading - from raedan (A.S.), to read.
Writing - from writan (A.S), to inscribe, to engrave; picture writing, like that of the early Mexicans, was probably the first ever attempted.
Geography - from ge (Gr.), the earth, and grapho, graphein, to describe; a written description of the earth.
History - from histor (Gr.), one who knows, a witness, umpire, judge; whence historia, narration of facts; facts are the true basis of knowledge.
Arithmetic - from arithmos.(Gr.) number.
Degrees - suppoee1 to be corrupted from gradus, a step, from gradior, gressus, to march; a step in progressive knowledge; a degree in literary honours.
Professors - from profitior, professus, to declare openly; to read or teach in public.
Arts - the "fine arts' include poetry, painting, music, sculpture, architecture.
Music - from mousa (Gr.), a poem, a song, melody; the harmony of sounds.
mathematics from mathema (Or.), learning, science, deduced from manthano, mathein, to learn; sciences which treat of the properties of space and number.
Chemistry - from chemeia (Gr.); others suppose it to be derived from chumikos (Gr), of or pertaining to juices, deduced from chumos, juice, whence it is sometimes written chymistry, the u in the Greek language being always mutable to y in words derived therefrom. Chemistry is the science which treats of the effects of heat and moisture upon all bodies.
Astronony - from aster (Gr.), a star, and nomos (Gr.), a law; the laws of the stars.
Natural philosophy - from natura (Lat.), and philosophia (Gr.), the study of wisdom; the study of the works and laws of nature.
Mechanics - from mechanao (Or.), to contrive, to invent; the action of bodies on one another by artful contrivances (machinery).
University - from universitas, the generality or community, an assembiy of colleges.
Book - from boc (A.S.), a beech tree, also bark, the same name being given to the tree and its bark; the inner bark was perhaps one of the first materials for books.
Classes - from classis, a fleet, in rank or order, from caleo, I assemble.
attention-from attendo, attentum, to stretch or lean forwards, to observe.
Diligence - from de, indeed, or in truth, and lego, lexo (Gr.), to collect, to make choice with care, to be sedulous and persevering.
QUESTIONS 39.
For what three classes of persons are the generality of schools intended?
Are colleges schools?
What branches of knowledge are taught in them?
What do you mean by languages?
What by the arts - taught in colleges?
What are the sciences?
What are the general subjects of instruction in ordinary schools?
What are the principal official instructors in a university called?
What power do these men exercise In relation to the students?
What relation does the instructor bear to his pupils?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Why should the acquisition of reading be the first branch of instruction?
Relate the anecdote of the gardener's son.
Why did be conclude that the alphabet was the key to ill knowledge?
What is the especial object of writing?
Has writing any other advantages?
Why is a knowledge of geography desirable?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Pupils always experience difficulties when they begin to learn; they cannot at first fix their attention on their studies, but by perseverance they will at length succeed. It is in general only the beginning of school life, or the commencement of a new study, which presents difficulties. The books which we read were written for our instruction. If we read them therefore attentively, and with reflection, we shall understand them, and gain information. Repetition is good for all learners, as it helps to fix knowledge in the memory; but learning by rote what is not understood is burdensome and unprofitable; as mere words are soon forgotten.
it is necessary that all pupils should read and write well. For in business great inconvenience and numerous mistakes arise from bad writing; while innumerable difficulties result from ignorant or careless reading. Calculation is also of importance in every situation of life. To gain facility in calculation, arithmetic of simple numbers and of money must be studied. Arithmetic requires thought and reason; therefore those who dislike the trouble of thinking, dislike arithmetic, if we do not acquire the art of calculating numbers and money we shall be liable to be cheated by the designs of dishonest people, and by the mistakes of others, and we shall be incapable of transacting business profitably.
The possession of knowledge extends the power of every man, and though the time bestowed on its attainment be long, it is afterwards rewarded. There are some who do not value knowledge when they are young, who therefore grow up in ignorance. All who do so, regret in after years the time that they mis-spent at school.
ELEMENTS OF LEARNING. (Continued.)
History - Events in the history of our own country and in that of others are constantly referred to in the conversation of intelligent people, in newspapers, and in speeches; it is, therefore, necessary to read history.
Arithmetic - To know the numbers of articles, to be able to count, weigh, measure, and calculate their value, is requisite for every man, woman, and child. To know the parts of money, of a pound weight, of a hundred weight, of a gallon, of a bushel, of a yard, of an acre, of a year, is as necessary to workpeople as to masters.
Languages - Generally the people of a country only require to know the language of that country, so that they may speak it correctly, read it with understanding, and write it intelligibly.
Besides the branches of elementary learning, much other knowledge is required even by working men, such as the knowledge of common things connected with their daily welfare, health, and comfort, the use of tools, the properties of the raw materials they use, the principles of machines, wages, domestic and political economy.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 40.
information - probably from in, and formo, formare, to frame or fashion; the first sketch, instruction.
Repetition - from re, again, and petere, to seek; to perform the same thing often.
Memory - from memoria, the power of retaining knowledge.
Rote - from rota, a wheel; because the impulse being given, little effort is required.
Burdensome - from byran (A.S.), to bear or carry; that which is carried in the mind with effort.
Forgotten - from forgitan (A S.), to escape; and used thus, for, forth, or out, and get, to get out or from - the mind.
Business - from bysgian (A.S.), to occupy, to employ.
Inconvenience - from in, not, and convenio (con, and venio), to suit, fit, or agree; unsuitable.
Ignorant - from in, not, and gnarus, skilful, wise; without wisdom.
Calculation - from calculus, a pebble (from calx, a stone); small stones were formerly used in counting; hence the origin of calculate.
Facility - from facilitas, easiness, deduced from facio, factum, to do.
Pupils - from pupillus, a ward or orphan, derived from pupus, a young child; a scholar is a ward, being under guardianship.
Learn - perhape from lesan (A.S.), to gather up, to glean; to learn is to gather up knowledge.
Studies - from speudo (Gr.), to hasten, to accelerate, to urge with diligence, is derived the Latin studio, to apply the mind to, and studium, study.
Perseverance - from per, through or by, and severo, severare, to be rigid, firm; firmness in pursuing an object.
Reflection - from re, again, and flecto, flectere, to turn, to bend; the act of bending or throwing back.
Understand - from understandan (A.S.), to stand under, to sustain; to carry mentally.
Acquire - from ad, to, and quiro, quaerere, to seek so as to obtain.
Liable - from the old French word liable, that may be bound; formed probably
from ligo, ligare, to bind, pledge, oblige.
Cheated - from eschoir (Fr.), to happen or fall out. The escheators under the feudal tenure were men whose duty it was to seek after what fell to the king: these men were exposed to the temptation of acting dishonestly, hence the application of the word.
Incapable - in, not, and capax, holding.
Attainment - from ad, to, and teneo, tenere, to hold or reach to.
Value - from valeo, valui, to be sound, to estimate the worth.
QUESTIONS 40.
What is the principal difficulty at the commencement of school studies?
How is the difficulty to be overcome?
When is it most felt?
How should books be read so that you may derive advantage from them?
Why is repetition good for all pupils?
Why is learning by rote an evil?
What two elementary branches of learning should all pupils acquire?
What inconvenience arises from bad writing?
What is taught by arithmetic?
What power is called into use by arithmetic?
What are the risks of those who are unable to calculate?
Of what use is knowledge?
Is it worth the time and pains bestowed on its attainment?
At what period of life should learning be acquired?
If not then acquired, what is the result?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Why is it desirable to read history?
Tell me some of the advantages of arithmetic.
Why is it necessary to a buyer and a seller?
All people in a civilized country are buyers and sellers - all, therefore, should understand - What?
Why is it necessary to work people, whether paid by the day - the job - or the piece?
Why should all people know their own language?
Tell me some of the other things that working men ought to know
SECTION VI. OF EDUCATION, ETC.
The master of a large school one day said to his pupils, "Now, boys, as you have all worked well to-day, and as the weather is fine, you shall have an afternoon's play." The boys looked up, and showed their merry faces, and shouted for joy. The elder boys soon formed themselves for a long-intended cricket-match on the adjoining common; another section sought up their bats and balls; half a dozen were fully occupied in raising their gigantic kite; three youngsters bent their way to a pond, whose possession was challenged by a flock of hissing geese, which the boys at length drove away, and then set to sailing their pigmy man-of-war. Four others, harnessed as a team, set off full gallop, held in, and followed by their mimic coachman, while two of their companions trundled their hoops beside them in a match for speed. All were engaged, all were enjoying themselves, all were happy, and the hours rolled rapidly away.
The bell rings. "Tea" is shouted, coffee for those who like it, and plum-cake for all. An evening-holiday followed; and after Smith had fed his rabbits, Thompson his guinea-pigs, Jones his pigeons, and Johnson his magpie, they all assembled for new games. Some fenced, others danced, some leaped, others hopped, all joined in blind- man's-buff. Some talked of rowing, others of sailing, others of riding, others of swimming, while not a few wished it was winter, and talked of skating, sliding, and snowballing. Would the boys have deserved this holiday if they had been careless and idle at their lessons?
EDUCATIONAL USE OF TOYS AND GAMES.
It is now about thirty years since the following remarks on making toys and games illustrative of principles in natural philosophy, were written by Dr. Paris:
"Allow me to enumerate the various philosophical principles which are involved in the operation of the several more popular toys and sports. We will commence with the ball, which will illustrate the nature and phenomena of elasticity, as it leaps from the ground; of rotatory motion, while it runs along its surface; of reflected motion, and of the angles of incidence And reflection, as it rebounds from the wall; and of projectiles, as it is whirled through the air; at the same time, the cricket-bat may serve to explain the centre of percussion. A game at marbles may be made subservient to the same purposes, and will farther assist us in conveying clear ideas upon the subject of the collision of elastic and non-elastic bodies, and of their velocities and direction after impact. The composition and resolution of forces may be explained at the same time. The nature of elastic springs will require no other apparatus than the numerous leaping-frogs and cats with which the nursery abounds."
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 41.
Master -from mestor (Gr.), an adviser. This word occurs in all the northern languages, and means the individual who has the most skill, power, authority; the Latin word is magister.
School - from schole (Gr.) rest, i.e., leisure for study. The term scholar is applied to the student; school to the place where the students assemble.
Cricket - diminutive of crook; a game formerly played with a crooked bat.
Common -from communis, things which pertain to the many, to all.
Section - from seco, secui, sectum, to cut off, to divide; a portion cut off.
Gigantic - from gigas, gigantos (Gr.), a giant; very large, of great size.
Pond - from pyndan (A.S.), to enclose; a pond is a pent up or an enclosed sheet of water.
Goose - a corruption of gos (A.S.)
Pigmy - from pugmaios (Gr.), a dwarf; any very small or diminutive person or thing; hence pug, a monkey.
Man-of-war - (manned for war), i.e., a ship of war. The first ship of war actually constructed for and owned by the British Admiralty, was "The Great Harry," built at a cost of £14,000, in the year 1487 - a beautiful little frigate belonging to the Prince of Wales.
Team - from tyman (A.S.), to bring forth, or produce in succession; hence team is applied to a number of animals harnessed and following in succession.
Gallop - from ge-hleapen, ge-hlopen (A.S.), to leap or jump.
Mimic - from mimeomai (Gr.), to represent, to imitate.
Trundled - from trendel (A.S.), a turning wheel; hence torn-dael to turn a wheel or hoop.
QUESTIONS 41.
What does the word master mean?
What is the Latin word for master?
What is the meaning of the word pupil?
Do you call the duties of a school work?
-Why?
How did the boys testify their joy when the holiday was announced?
Why was the master justified in granting it?
Who have generally merry faces, the industrious or the indolent?
What game did the elder boys engage in?
Can cricketing take place in a room or small area?
What is a common?
Why is it desirable that commons should be left unenclosed?
Enumerate some of the sports of the other boys.
What is a man-of-war?
How did the boys severally spend their evening?
Explain to me the double advantage of industry from this lesson. (Inward satisfaction and the respect and commendation of others.)
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
As the ball leaps from the ground what phenomenon does it illustrate?
And what as it runs along the ground?
How can you prove that the air is elastic?
By what means is a watch kept in motion?
What kind of balls are most elastic?
What kind are least so?
Why would not a ball of dough or moist clay rebound?
Mention several very elastic substances.
Roll a marble along the floor.
What caused it to roll?
It turns round, or revolves upon its axis - What is this motion called?
Why does the marble move thus?
What causes it to stop?
If it had struck against a larger ball what course would it have taken?
This new direction is called reflected motion - What motion would you call it if a ball was thrown against a wall and rebounded?
(Some of the illustrations requisite must be explained by diagrams.)
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE GRADATION III.
The amusements of girls are not so rough and boisterous as those of boys; they do not play at leap-frog, at cricket, and at marbles. But it is desirable that they should have better exercise than walking two and two, with measured step, keeping in rank, and lowering their voices to a whisper. Unrestrained exertion is necessary for girls as well as boys.
The changes from walking to running, hopping, skipping, and jumping cause muscular action, and are needful to develop the frame. Jerking the arms and extending them upwards to catch "the circling ball," throwing them in all directions to strike the wavering shuttlecock with the battledore; marching in every variety of time; dancing with or without music; the sceptre-and-wand exercises, have all their advantages. Thread-the-needle, hide-and-seek, hunt-the-slipper, and puss-in-the-corner unite skill, agility, and merriment with bodily action. Little girls are always interested in dressing dolls, making doll-clothes, swinging, running races, and threading beads.
Many of the amusements of girls consist of light occupations; they make wafer, clove, shell, and moss baskets, wax flowers, necklaces of sealing wax or laburnum seeds, or of steel, brass, and glass beads. Some have a domestic manufactory of purses, pen-wipers, bags, and pin-cushions. Laborious wool-work is the toilsome recreation of many, while others who are wiser collect and arrange shells, plants, or insects, watch the habits of animals, or perhaps feed and rear the caterpillar whose labours produce silk
EDUCATIONAL USE OF TOYS AND GAMES. (Continued.)
"The leathern sucker will exemplify the nature of cohesion, and the effect of water in filling up those inequalities by which contiguous surfaces are deprived of their attractive power; it will, at the same time, demonstrate the nature of a vacuum, and the influence of atmospheric pressure. The squirt will afford a farther illustration of the same views, and will furnish a practical proof of the weight of the atmosphere in raising a column of water. The theory of the pump will necessarily follow. The various balancing toys will elucidate the nature of the centre of gravity, point of suspension, and line of direction; the see-saw, rocking-horse, and the operation of walking upon stilts, will here come in aid of our explanations. The sling will demonstrate the existence and effect of centrifugal force; the top and teetotum will prove the power of vertiginous motion to support the axis of a body in an upright position. The game of bilboquet or cup and ball, will show the influence of rotatory motion in steadying the path of a spherical body, whence the theory of the rifle gun may be deduced," &c
Philosophy in Sport.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 42.
Amusements - from a, from, and musa, a song, a muse - derived from mousa (Gr.), literally a withdrawal from the Muses, who were patronesses of studies in general; suspension of studies; hence musicus, sweet, pleasant to the mind.
Rough - from reafian (A.S.), to tear or make rugged.
boisterous-from buster (Du.), furious, turbulent, raging.
Whisper - from hwisprian (A.S.), to murmur, to speak in a low voice.
Develop - from develo, develare, to open, to unveil.
Jerking - word formed probably from the sound; a quick sudden motion.
Agility - from agilis, swift, active; from ago, to act.
Clove - from cleofan (A.S.), to cleave; cloves are the dried flower-buds of the caryphyllus aromaticus.
Shell - the part which may be separated from the animal - from scyllan(A.S.), to divide or separate.
Moss - from muscus, moss.
Wax - the honeycomb of the bee.
Sealing-wax - from sigelan (A.S.), to seal, and wax.
Laburnum - a flowering tree, well known from its pedulous yellow flowers; these flowers become pods, and contain seeds rather smaller than common peas.
Purses - from bursa (Gr.), a skin, that being the material of which purses were formerly made; the bursar of a college is the purse-keeper; and the purser on board ship has charge of the provisions, and was formerly paymaster of the ship.
Collect - from colligo, collectum, to bring or gather together; the science of conchology - conche (Gr.), a shell, and logos (Gr.), a catalogue - teaches the arrangement of shells; that of botany - botane (Gr.), herb or grass, - the arrangement of plants; and that of entomology - entomos, an insect, - the arrangement of insects.
Caterpillar - the name given to the larva state (i.e., after leaving the egg) of butterflies and moths.
UESTIONS 42.
What is meant by amusements?
What games are proper for boys, but not so desirable for girls to engage in?
What kind of exercise is of little comparative benefit?
What kinds of exercise promote health, and are needful to develop the frame?
What is the benefit of muscular action?
Enumerate some of the sports that girls may properly pursue.
In what occupation are little girls generally interested?
Enumerate some of the lighter amusing occupations of girls.
What is the science called which teaches about shells?
From what words is its name derived?
What does botany teach?
What science teaches us about insects?
How is its name derived?
Is there any useful knowledge to be gained from studying the habits of animals ? - What?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What property does the leather sucker lifting a stone exhibit?
If you were about to make a sucker of a piece of leather, what would you first do to soften the leather?
Of what shape should you make it?
What would you do next?
How could you then lift a stone with it?
It would adhere to the surface and lift a heavy stone - would it do this if the leather were dry?
Why not?
Then the soft state of the leather causes a close contact between it and the stone - What is this property called?
And why could there be no cohesion when the leather was dry?
You would observe the hollow produced at the central part on lifting the stone by the string - this is a vacuum, for no air can get to it - and the weight of the atmosphere pressing on the surface of the leather, prevents it from leaving the stone. When the stone falls, the air, by its pressure, has forced itself through the edges of the leather.
SECTION VII. THE MAMMALIA.
Animals include all those beings that are endowed with life, sensation, and the power of voluntary action. All animals are endowed with instinct; man is also endowed with reason.
Animals are classified according to their resemblance in outward structure, and also according to their habits of life. They are either vertebrate or invertebrate. Vertebrate animals are so called from the word vertebra, which means a joint of the back, because they all have a back-bone running through the body. The spines of all vertebrated animals are composed of 24 bones and upwards. Invertebrate animals are the mollusca, the articulata and the radiata. The mollusca are animals with a soft body, like the snail. The articulata have their body divided into sections, like the fly and the beetle. The radiata are those that radiate from a centre, like the starfish.
The highest forms of animals are found among the vertebrated. Men, beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes belong to this division. There are four classes of vertebrate animals. The first is called mammalia; all the animals of this class nourish their young by suckling them; and all are viviparous; that is, they bring forth their young alive. The other three classes are oviparous, or produce their young from eggs; they include birds, reptiles, and fishes.
The mammalia have a skeleton more or less like that of man; they have warm red blood; and they can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. Some of them live on land, some wholly in water, and some are amphibious, or live either on land or in water.
VERTEBRATED ANIMALS. THE MAMMALIA.
Resemblance in outward structure - Hence we have besides man - beasts, birds, fishes, and reptiles, all vertebrated animals; all others being deficient of vertebrae. But each of these large divisions is again subdivided; in the mammalia, we have feeders on insects, as bats and hedgehogs; feeders on flesh, as lions, wolves, &c.; feeders on fish, as the seal; gnawers, as the squirrel, rat, &c.; toothless animals, as the ant eater; thick skinned animals, as the elephant with a trunk, the pig with a snout, and the horse with solid feet; ruminating animals, as the cow, sheep, goat, and deer; and the mammalia of the deep, the huge whale and the narwhal. There are other animals belonging to these subdivisions which follow the habits of life of those of their own order; and all have one marked resemblance of structure, - they are the highest class of vertebrated animals, and they all suckle their young. Introduction to the Animal Kingdom. Varty and Owen.
The four large prints of the same publishers show, on a scale, the relative size of animals to man, and their comparative size, with each other.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 43.
Sensation - from sensio, sentire, sensum, to feel or perceive.
Classified - from classis, a fleet, deduced probably from klesis (Gr.), a calling or summoning; the term class seems to owe its origin to Servius Tullius, who, in order to make an estimate of every person's estate, divided the Roman people into six parts, which he called classes; those of the first class were, by way of eminence, called classici (classics); hence, also, authors of the first rank came to be called classics.
Resemblance - from ressembler (Fr.), to represent, or show a likeness.
Structure - from structura, a building, derived from struo, structum, to pile or build up.
Vertebrate - from verto, vertere, to turn; the spine consists of segments which turn or rotate one upon another.
Invertebrate - animal a without vertebrae.
Mollusca - from mollis, soft; they are invertebrate, soft, inarticulated.
Articulata - from articulus, a small joint, jointed. The articulata are divided into four groups: 1, the annelida (from annus, a ring), consisting of leeches, earthworms, &c.; 2, the crustacea (from crusta, a shell), crabs, lobsters, &c.; 3, the arachnida (from arachnes (Gr), a spider, and this from arag (Heb.), to weave), spiders, scorpions, &c.; and 4, the insecta (from in, and seco, sectum, to cut, because insects seem to be cut nearly into parts), flies, butterflies, beetles, &c
Radiata - from radio, radiare, to shoot forth from a centre, as rays from the sun.
Mammalla - from mammos, breasts; animals that suckle their young belong to this class.
Viviparous - from vivus, alive, and pario, peperi, to produce; to produce the young alive.
Oviparous - from ovum, an egg, and pario, peperi, to produce; egg-laying animals.
Birds - from braedan (A.S.), to spread abroad, in allusion to their wings when expanded; from bur (Heb.), to open, or set in view.
Reptiles - from reptiis, a creeping thing; deduced from repo, reptum, to creep.
Fishes - from the same root as piscis, a fish; probably from nephish (Heb.), life; fishes being the first living creatures spoken of in the account of the creation (Gen. I)
Amphibious - from amphis (Gr.), both or double, and bios (Gr.), life; a double existence, or capable of living both on land and in water.
QUESTIONS 43.
Give a definition of the word animal.
What is the meaning of endowed?
What is sensation?
What do you understand by voluntary action?
How do you distinguish the mental endowments of mankind and those of the lower animals?
What are the main points to be observed in the classification of animals?
What two great divisions first present themselves to the observer?
What is the meaning of vertebrate? - and what of invertebrate?
Enumerate a few animals of both classes.
To which of these classes belong the higher forms of animal life?
What orders does the lower class include?
How are the mollusks characterized?
Describe the general characters of the articulata.
In what way are the radiata distinguished?
How many are the orders of the vertebrata?
What do you understand by mammalia?
What by viviparous? - oviparous?
Are the mammalia inhabitants of the land exclusively?
What are those called which sometimes live on land and sometimes in water?
QUESTION ON FOOT NOTES.
What classes comprise the vertebrated animals?
What resemblance of outward structure have they all?
Of what are all other animals deficient?
What are the highest class of vertebrated animals called?
Mention some of the vertebrata that feed on insects.
On what do lions, wolves, &c., feed?
What does the seal feed upon?
Which of the mammalia are gnawers?
Mention some peculiarities in the thick skinned mammalia?
Which of the class are ruminating animals?
Can you mention any others of these respective orders - feeders on flesh - on insects - on herbage, &c.?
In what does their especial resemblance to each other consist?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
The mammalia are more perfect in their structure, and have more intelligence than any other animals. Their teeth are varied in shape, in strength, and in arrangement, according to the kinds of food on which they subsist. The highest order of the mammalia is MAN.
Of mankind there are five varieties; namely, the Caucasian, which includes Europeans, Egyptians, Arabians, Persians, and the pure Hindoo race; the Mongolian, which includes Turks, Tartars, Chinese, and the Polar races; the Negro, which includes the tribes of Central Africa, the Caffres, the Hottentots, and the native Australians; the American, which comprises the different tribes of North and South America; and the Malay, which inhabits the islands of Borneo, Java, Sumatra, New Zealand, and Polynesia.
Apes and monkeys, though resembling man, have no feet, but four strong hands instead. These hands assist them in climbing after their food, which consists of fruit and herbs. Bats are web-handed animals, that live principally upon insects seized in the air. Some bats, however, are fruit-eaters. Shrews and moles live upon insects in the earth, which they obtain by burrowing. Cats and lions have sharp teeth and claws, by which they tear their prey. Seals have a finlike foot to enable them to swim after fish. Several quadrupeds are furnished with a pouch for containing their young, as the opossum and the kangaroo. Beavers and rats are gnawing animals. Ant-eaters have no teeth, but a long tongue, and a sharp snout. The elephant and horse are thick-skinned. The cow and sheep chew the cud. The whale and the dolphin are mammals, and live entirely at sea.
TEETH AND TUSKS OF MAMMALIA.
Their teeth are varied, &c - In man there are no carnivorous teeth, and yet be feeds on beasts, birds, and fish. Having more intelligence than other animals, he supplies himself with the gun, the spear, and the net, for capture, and with knives and other instruments to divide his food. The fangs of the tiger are strong enough to penetrate and tear its prey; those of the weasel are as powerful, according to their size; the chisel-teeth of the beaver, the squirrel, and the rabbit, never cease growing, for as fast as they are worn down by the attrition of gnawing, they not only grow, but are supplied with a new enamel covering; the whale has no need of teeth, but it has a sieve in its mouth, which allows the water to pass through, while it retains the small animals on which it feeds; the ant-eater gathers insects on its tongue, and swallows them without mastication; the tusks of the wild boar project from the sides of its mouth, and enable it to rip up its foes; and those of the babyroussa rise up and protect its eyes as it forces its way through the tangled jungle.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 44.
Perfect - from per, through, or thoroughly, and facio, factum, to mike or do.
Intelligence - from inter, between, and lego, legere, to choose; the power of discrimination, choice, judgment..
Mankind - the relationship of the human family; all being of the same kin, or of common descent; so that mankind is mankinned.
Caucasian - the physical characteristics of the tribes who formerly occupied the Caucasian range of mountains. There is no country on the face of the globe which contains such a variety of people as the valleys of the Caucasus.
Europeans - inhabitants of Europe; so called after one of the most beautiful women of ancient times, Europa, daughter of Agenor, king of the Phoenicians, and sister of Cadmus, who brought letters into Greece.
Egyptians - inhabitants of Egypt; a fertile country forming the southern division of the valley of the Nile.
Arabians - wanderers or dwellers In the desert, descendants of Ishmael, consequently of Abraham; they are principally Mahometans. Mahomet was born at Mecca, AD. 569; he commenced his mission, AD. 609; he died, n. 632.
Persians - inhabitants of Persia; a country celebrated both sacred and profane history.
Mongolians - the original inhabitants of a wide region of Asia, east of the Caspian sea; their peculiar sallowness and conformation of face is universally considered as a type of a great subdivision of the human race.
Negro - from niger, black. The decisive form and colour of the negro race are well marked.
Central Africa - is but little known to Europeans, though there is reason to believe it sustains a large population.
American - this race is reddish-brown, with straight hair and high cheek bones.
Apes - probably an African word; the chimpanzee, ourangs, and gibbons are included under this term.
Shrew - or shrew-mouse; an insectivorous animal resembling a mouse; it burrows in the ground, and feeds on the larvae of insects.
Cats - probably from catan (Heb.), little; cats are small as compared with others of the tiger kind.
lions - from leon (Gr.), a lion the most powerful of the cat tribe, all of which are remarkable for their destructive powers.
Seals - from seol (A.S.), warm-blooded animals living in the sea; they haunt the Arctic regions, and the seal fishery is of great value both for the oil and the skins.
Opossum - peculiar to America, from the southern border of Canada to Chili and Paraguay; they live chiefly on insects, small reptiles, birds, and eggs.
Kangaroo - this curious animal was first discovered by Captain Cook in New Holland.
Horse - from hors (A.S.),a hard or horny hoof, a solid foot.
cid-.bridged from chewed; from ce6w (A.8.), me chew.
Dolphin - of doubtful derivation; the word is nearly the same in the Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch.
Whale - from walwian (A.S.), to roll or wallow; the walrus is a wallowing animal.
QUESTIONS 44.
In what respect Is the superiority of the class mammalia exhibited?
What is there peculiar in their teeth?
What is the highest order of mammals?
How many are the varieties of mankind?
What people are included in the Caucasian variety?
What are included in the Mongolian ?
Enumerate the Negro tribes.
What tribes are included in the American race?
Name the people comprised In the Malay variety.
In what respect are apes and monkeys distinguished from man?
What peculiarity has the bat?
How do shrews and moles obtain their food?
How are cats and lions enabled to seize and tear their prey?
What distinguishing formation have seals?
What animals have a pouch?
For what purpose?
Mention some gnawing animals.
What animals have no teeth ?
What animals are thick-skinned?
What peculiarity in feeding have cows, sheep, &c.?
Which of the mammalia live In the sea?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How does man subdue the larger animals?
How does be supply the want of their teeth and claws?
What provision has the tiger to enable him to prey on other animals?
What small animal is similarly provided?
How are the gnawing animals compensated for the wear of their teeth?
Why has the whale no need of teeth?
What peculiarity is there in the mouth of the whale?
Why has the ant-eater no occasion for teeth?
How is the wild boar supplied with instruments of attack and defence?
What remarkable protection has the babyroussa in its tusks?
What is there wonderful in all these conformations?
SECTION VII. THE MAMMALIA.
Lesson 45. Domestic Quadrupeds.
All the quadrupeds are useful, but some of them are more directly beneficial to man than others. Domestic animals are reared by him for these direct benefits. All the domestic animals are gentle in their habits, and like to be near man. Their strength and docility render them useful while living, and the flesh of many supplies a large quantity of food after they have been killed.
Of all the domestic animals, the cow is perhaps of the greatest value, as its milk and its flesh furnish us with food, its hide with leather, its hair with an ingredient for plaster, and its horns with a useful material for many articles.
The utility of the horse is of a different kind; his strength and docility enable man to perform works in which no other animal can so well assist him. Harnessed to the plough, he aids in the labours of agriculture; in a cart or waggon he draws heavy loads; in a coach he surpasses all other animals in speed. The ass is slower, but it is useful to the poor man, from its feeding on the coarsest kinds of food. The sheep supplies not only meat but materials for clothing. The dog is the most faithful of all animals; he guards his masters person and property; he attacks thieves, watches the flocks, and hunts game. The cat is a household animal; noiseless and stealthy, it sees in the dark, and clears the house of rats and mice, which leave their holes to feed by night.
The pig is chiefly valuable for its flesh, as it fattens rapidly. In England the goat is not commonly kept, but it is to the inhabitants of mountainous countries what the sheep is to us. The camel is the principal domestic animal of the Arab; and the reindeer of the Laplander
SOCIAL AND SOLITARY ANIMALS. THE SOCIAL ONLY DOMESTIC.
domestic animals The animals we have successfully domesticated are social even in a state of nature. If all animals resembled the lion, the fox, or the hyaena, which seek solitude, we should have no domestic animals.
the horse The strength and the solidity of the hoof makes the horse pre-eminently the labouring servant of man, while even the feet of the elephant and the hippopotamus are divided into toes, and comparatively feeble for such a purpose.
the dog The special assistant of man, he is fleeter than his master in the chase, and more perfect in scent; he is also a guardian of his flocks, a watcher of his property, and a companion in his walks.
the cat Not properly speaking a domestic animal; it is neither submissive nor docile, nor yet serviceable beyond following its own instincts; it accustoms itself to the locality rather than to the family in which it lives; its slinking and stealthy pace and look are very different to the bold honesty of the dog.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 45.
Quadrupeds -from quator, four, and pes, pedis, a foot; four-footed animals.
Domestic from domos (Gr.), a house; tamed, attached to a house; living in
or near the house.
Docility - from docilitas, deduced from doceo, docui, to teach; aptness for
learning,
Flesh from flaesc (A.S.), probably from flean, to flay or cut off; as of flesh off bones.
Cow cu (A.S.), probably from kueo (Gr.), to teem with, both with young
and milk.
Milk either from the Anglo-Saxon melcian, to draw or press out with the hand, or from amelgo (Gr.), of equal signification.
Hide from hydan (A.S.), to cover, to protect.
Leather from lithe (A.S.), supple, pliant.
Ingredient from ingredior, to enter into; that which enters into the composition of any compound.
Plaster from plasso, or platto (Gr.), to form, mould, fashion.
Waggon from waegan (A.S.), to bear or carry; wagen (A.S.), a waggon.
Ass from asinus, etymology uncertain. The finest asses are those of Arabia;
the best in Europe, those of Spain and Malta.
Dog the family name is Canidae, and includes all varieties of the dog, wolf,
and fox; the teeth called the canine teeth attain a large development in the dog.
Flocks from folgian (A.S.), to follow; whence folc, which by transposition
forms floc. The word was formerly applied to a company of men who followed the same occupation, or who had a public object, and afterwards to an assemblage of animals.
Game from gaemnian (A.S.), to play or sport. Those species of animals which the arbitrary constitution of positive law has distinguished from the rest by the well-known appellation of game. Blackstone.
mice from mus (Gr.), a mouse.
QUESTIONS 45.
Which of the quadrupeds are more directly beneficial to man?
What general peculiarities are exhibited by the domestic animals?
What advantage is derived from some of them when killed?
Which of the domestic animals is the most valuable?
Enumerate some of the advantages man derives from this animal.
How is the utility of the horse shown?
Is the ass of service to man?
What is obtained from the sheep?
In what does the usefulness of the dog consist?
What service does the cat render?
Is the pig of use and in what way?
Is the goat useful?
In what countries is its utility enhanced?
What people derive advantage from the services of the camel?
Who are the Arabians?
To what animal does the Laplander owe much?
Where is Lapland?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What similarity of habit have all the animals which man has domesticated?
Mention some solitary animals.
What makes he horse so pre-eminently serviceable?
What other animals have similar hoofs?
Why could not the elephant and hippopotamus be rendered thus useful?
What other circumstances would disqualify them for labour in a country like this?
Mention some of the valuable qualities of the dog.
Has the cat any of these good qualities?
What is the difference in the habits of these two animals?
How does it manifest itself in their outward appearance?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Beasts of prey are those animals that destroy life for the sake of food. They are generally furnished with strong and sharp teeth and claws, fitted for cutting and tearing their prey in pieces; they have likewise strong jaws, a powerful frame, and great agility.
Beasts of the lion kind eat only the flesh of animals which they have killed, unless pressed with hunger, or in confinement. They steal upon their prey unawares, and seize it with a sudden bound; and if disappointed, or baffled, they slink away. Among them are found the lion, the tiger, the puma, the jaguar, the panther, the leopard the lynx, the ocelot, and the cat. The wolf; the fox, and the jackal not only prey on living animals, but devour carrion. Of the hyaena there are several varieties, all of them destructive, uniting the fierceness of the tiger with the perseverance of the wolf; they are nocturnal feeders. The dog naturally lives upon flesh, and this makes him so serviceable to the sportsman when he is trained to fetch game without eating it, or to point it out instead of pouncing upon it. The weasel tribe, including the pole-cat and the ferret, are perhaps the most b1oodthirsty of all animals; they have a long, slender, flexible body, and are equally destructive in the game preserve, the rabbit-warren, and the farmyard. The otter is of the weasel tribe; it inhabits the banks of rivers and lakes, has webbed toes, and subsists on fish. Bears are a numerous race, consisting of many species in different countries. They are enabled to climb up the trunks of trees, and most of them live on vegetable food and fruit, though they will eat flesh and carrion when pressed by hunger. The polar-bear destroys seals, and feeds on the dead carcases of whales and fishes.
WALKING OF THE TIGER TRIBE. THE BEAR TRIBE. MAN.
Claws Their claws are kept constantly sharp, for their points are never allowed to become worn by touching the ground; the mechanism provided for this purpose keeps the claws laid back (retracted) upon the upper part of the foot, so that the soft cushions beneath the toes are the only part brought to the earth in walking; thus, also, they are enabled to walk without noise. At the will of the animal, however, the claws can be instantly brought forward and buried in the flesh of its prey.
the hyaena One of the scavengers of hot countries; he performs the same office as the vulture, and the insects, that of devouring the putrid remains that would otherwise corrupt the air.
the bear The active tiger tribe, in walking, tread lightly on their toes, on tiptoe, with the claws retracted; the bears, on the contrary, which are slow moving animals, plant the whole foot on the ground; the badger, the ratel, and others, are armed like the bear for walking. A man when walking treads on the sole of his foot; but when running he moves more lightly and swiftly on tip-toe.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 46.
Lion probably from hlewan (A.S.), to roar. The Greek has leon, the origin of which is not clear.
Lion-kind i.e., kinned to each other, as the cow-kind among animals, the cabbage-kind among plants.
Prey from praeda, pillage, plunder.
Bound from bondir (Fr.), to jump or jerk upward suddenly.
Baffled defeated, perplexed, deceived.
Slink from slincan (A.S.), to creep, crawl, or sneak away.
Tiger from tigris (Median), a shaft, that which moves rapidly; its name expresses it swiftness.
Puma called also the cougar; it lives in woods.
Jaguar the American tiger; the panther of the furrier; it ascends trees, from the top of which it drops on its prey.
Leopard smaller than the lioness; a native of Southern Africa.
Lynx from lunx (Gr.),from luke, light; the eyes of the lynx have a fiery brilliancy.
Ocelot chiefly found in Mexico; it also climbs trees.
Wolf supposed to be derived from ululo, to howl or yell.
Fox a pure Anglo-Saxon word, but why applied to the animal is unknown.
Jackal named the lions provider the lion being attracted by the howl of the jackals when hunting; they bunt in flocks; they and the dogs are the four-footed scavengers of the East.
Carrion from caro, carnis, flesh; the dead body of an animal.
Hyaena from huaina (Gr.), the same animal.
Fierceness from ferus, savage; fera, a wild beast.
Nocturnal from nocturnus, nightly; nox, the night.
Fetch from fetian (A.S.), to fetch, bear, or bring to.
Weasel so called from its noise.
Polecat or Polish cat; its skin is much valued.
Ferret from fureter (Fr.), to search, pry, as this animal does.
Slender from slinder- (Du).
Flexible from flecto, flexum, to bend.
Warren from warian (A.S.), to protect or defend.
Otter derived by some from hudor (Gr.), water, because of its habit; by others from lutra, the same animal.
Polar-bear so called because it is found in regions near the north pole. See north pole, 111.
Carcases from carcasso (Ital.), an empty quiver; as the body is when the life has departed.
QUESTIONS 46.
What animals are denominated beasts of prey?
With what instruments of destruction are they furnished?
Upon what food do beasts of the lion-kind live?
How do they take their prey?
Name a few of the animals of the lion-kind.
Which of the beasts of prey also devour carrion?
What qualities does the hyena possess?
When does it feed?
To whom is the dog of service?
What tribes are the most bloodthirsty of animals?
Describe their form.
Where do they exhibit their destructiveness?
Upon what does the otter feed?
Are bears numerous?
Upon what do they feed?
Are they not carnivorous then?
Upon what does the polar-bear subsist?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What animals have retractile claws?
What do you mean by retractile?
Of what advantage is this provision to them?
What part of their feet is brought to the ground in walking?
What peculiar character has their mode of walking?
How is this an advantage to them?
How are the claws brought into use when required?
How is the hyaena designated?
What other animals assist in this useful work?
What would be the result if carrion were left to putrify?
How are the bear-tribe different in their movements to the tiger-tribe?
How do we walk when we want to go quickly?
SECTION VII. THE MAMMALIA.
Most of the wild animals inhabit deserts, forests, plains, prairies, or mountains far from the abodes of man. They occupy a country till man begins to cultivate it, they then retire into distant parts where they are not likely to be disturbed.
Till men began to multiply in England, this country was overrun with wolves. At the present time there are, in the thinly inhabited parts of North America, herds of thousands of bisons; they are slain for food, and as settlers occupy the land, they retire farther off. In South Africa there are millions of deer of various species, but, as cultivation advances, they diminish in number. The zebra is shaped like the horse; hitherto it has not been tamed. The elephant, although a gigantic creature, has been rendered almost domestic. In some countries it is used both in war, and in the chase. The hippopotamus is an amphibious animal of immense size; it reaches 12 feet in length, and measures 10 feet round the girth. It lives principally in the water, and among the uninhabited river-banks of Africa. The deer and the antelope are swift of foot; some species are found in almost all countries. The giraffe is a gigantic kind of deer, so formed as to browse on the higher branches of trees, which ordinary deer cannot reach. The reindeer serves the poor Laplander as a horse, an ox, and a sheep; it labours for him, it carries his loads, it draws his sledge, it yields milk and flesh for his table, and when dead its hide is used for clothing.
The sloth is a remarkable animal; its life is spent in trees, where its movements are active; but on the earth, to which it does not like to descend, it is clumsy and slow. The sloth is found of various species in the forests of South America. The wild-boar is destructive in the neighbourhood of its native forests: it commits great injuries by tearing up the ground in search of roots. All these animals are vegetable feeders.
NATURAL CONCEALMENTS OF ANIMALS. THE ELEPHANT. THE GIRAFFE.
Wild animals inhabit deserts, &c. The lion inhabits arid and burnt up plains; his colour corresponds with that of the earth, he is therefore scarcely visible in his natural haunts; the tiger skirts the woods, and is found among the upright stems of burnt, tawny herbage, where it requires a practised eye to detect t, while the spotted leopard, lurking among the bright leafy foliage, is scarcely perceptible there: change their places, and their prey would see and avoid them.
the elephant Its enormous body requires pillars of strength, and these are provided; but the elephant could not supply itself with food from the earth below or from the trees above without a hand, which is given in the prolonged upper lip forming iii trunk; with this, it can seize the boughs above, and the herbage beneath.
the giraffe The short, thick neck of the elephant contrasts with the long, slender neck of the giraffe; yet both contain the same number of vertebra. The giraffe browses on the foliage and tender shoots of trees, and has a tongue formed for plucking them off. The Animal Kingdom, by Thomas Rymer Jones.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 47.
Deserts from desero, desertum, to forsake; deserts are abandoned, forsaken places.
Prairies (Fr.), meadows; extensive plains, generally covered with long coarse grass; some are dry, others heathy, others wet.
Disturbed from disturbo, disturbare, to disorder, to confound; formed from dis, a part, and turbo, (from turbe, Gr. a mob), to agitate.
Wolves the wolf-dog, the main instrument of the extinction of wolves in these islands, is now nearly itself extinct.
Bisons from bos, an ox; the wild oxen of America.
Hippopotamus from hippos (Gr.), a horse, and potamus, a river; the river horse.
Zebra its general resemblance is that of the ass; it is much more beautiful than the quagga.
Elephant from elephas (Gr.), derived perhaps from aleph (Heb.), chief; whence elephim, oxen, the chief of all cattle; applied also to the chief of the forest, or greatest animal in size.
Browse from brysan (A.S.), to bruise with the teeth.
Girth from gyrdan (A.S.), to enclose, embrace.
Deer - the cervidae (from cervus, a stag); a family of ruminating animals. Their horns or antlers are renewed annually.
Antelope a corrupted form of the term antholops, employed by Eustatius to designate an animal of this genus; it literally signifies bright eyes.
Giraffe called also the cameleopard, from some resemblance to the two animals. It is a very remarkable animal, a native of Africa.
Reindeer this animal, the most valuable gift of God to the Laplander, bears a resemblance to the stag; it is, however, smaller, and its head less erect.
Laplander - a distinct race from the Fins; this name was given to them by the Swedes, but they do not recognise it. They are a small race.
Sloth from the word slow, slawian (A.S.), to delay, to retard.
clumsy from klump (Ger.), derived from kleben, to stick to one; hence clump, clumsy, awkward.
South America that half of the vast continent of America which extends from the isthmus of Panama southward to Cape Horn.
QUESTIONS 47.
Where are wild animals chiefly found?
How long do they inhabit the uncultivated regions?
With what animal was England once infested?
What animal is abundant in the uninhabited parts of America?
Is its flesh of use when killed?
What animal is peculiar to the African deserts?
What tends to diminish their numbers?
What untamed animal is like the horse?
Is the elephant tameable?
For what purposes is it employed?
What do you know of the hippopotamus?
Name some of the swift-footed animals.
For what does the peculiar formation of the giraffe adapt it?
What animal is of most value to the Laplander?
What do you know of the Laplanders?
What is said in the lesson of the sloth?
Where is this animal found?
Is the wild boar destructive?
Where and to what?
QUESTIONS AND FOOT NOTES.
What kind of places does the lion inhabit?
Why is he scarcely visible in such haunts?
Where is the tiger found?
How does such a locality tend to his concealment?
Where does the leopard lurk?
Why is he concealed in such haunts?
What change would tend to expose them to the animals they prey upon?
What does the elephant feed upon?
It cannot graze like the ox, nor browse like the goat How then does it feed?
What contrast is there between the elephant and the giraffe?
How does the giraffe obtain its food?
Tell me now the dissimilarity and similarity in these two animals.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 48. Wild Animals. (Continued.)
All animals are fitted by their bodily organs for a peculiar mode of life; and all have instincts by which life is made happy to them. The long-lived elephant, and the short-lived ephemera, are equally endowed with powers of enjoyment, and feel pleasure in existence.
The badger in its solitary den, with its slow movements and nocturnal habits, has its feet so formed as to enable it to dig up the roots on which it feeds; and its teeth are adapted either for gnawing roots or for tearing flesh. The squirrel, whose active movements in the sunlight lead us to regard it as one of the happiest of all creatures, is adapted for climbing trees, upon which it finds its food and its home. The timid hare, not daring to close its eyes to sleep, has its sense of security when feeding amongst the high growing crops, and a swiftness which enables it to escape many of its enemies. The mouse has protection in its hiding place; for what other animal can there molest it? The devouring rat, if it does some mischief, also renders essential service to man in clearing the earth of noxious carrion. The methodical beaver finds its happiness in society, and is not really wiser than the volatile monkey; both follow their instincts. The beaver teaches us the value of social life, and the works that can be accomplished by united efforts; the monkey by its imitations indicates what we might become without reason.
Animals are noxious only when they are so numerous as to destroy property. Within certain limits they all render services by freeing the air, and ridding trees of noxious insects, by clearing the ground of vegetable and animal matter that would otherwise become putrid, and by making tracks in the earth to drain off superfluous water.
THE WALRUS. THE HOUSE FLY. LOCUSTS. PASSENGER PIGEON, ETC.
peculiar mode of life The upper teeth of the walrus are lengthened into powerful tusks, which form a pair of crutches for hooking itself upon the rock, thus enabling it to lift its enormous body out of the water. The common house fly forms a vacuum within its feet, and is thus able to walk with its body downwards, in opposition to the force of gravity. The walrus has a similar structure in its large feet, which, acting like the boys leathern sucker, enables it to climb up icy rocks.
noxious only The damage done by the locusts in the East can scarcely be estimated; one species attacks only the foliage of trees, and the noise of their jaws has been compared to the sound of many sawyers at work; the species most obnoxious to the Eastern agriculturist is that which feeds on grain. The passenger pigeon of America Is another instance of the vast destruction caused by animals. (See foot notes 68). The caterpillar of the common white butterfly is sometimes very destructive to the cabbage crops in our gardens, but the birds which feed on them diminish their number. (Foot notes 69.)
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 48.
Ephemera from epi, upon, and henera (Gr.), a day; a being of a day.
Solitary from solitarius, formed from solus, alone.
Den a word nearly related to down; hence den (A.S.), a valley or sheltered place to lie down in.
dig from dician (A.S.), to make a ditch, probably from dike (Heb.), a ditch.
Squirrel from skiouros (Gr.), skia, shadow, and oura, tail, literally the shadow-tail; an animal that can cover or overshadow its body with its tail, from its bushiness and size.
Timid from timidus, fearful, bashful, from timeo, timere, to apprehend danger, to fear.
Have from habeo, habere, to hold or keep.
Security from securitas, safety, confidence, derived from sine, without, and cura, care; without care, to have confidence.
Mouse from mus (Gr.), probably derived from muo, to hide. Mouse is mus in Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin.
Molest from molestus, annoying or troublesome, from moles, a heap.
Mischief from mis, a prefix signifying ill or bad, and cheve, or achieve, to finish, to effect, is compounded mischief; injury, hurt, harm.
Methodical from methodos (Gr.), orderly; formed thus meta, with or by, and hodos, way; hence an orderly or regular course of proceeding.
Beaver from befer (A.S.), an amphibious animal which inhabits the margins and shailows of rivers; it was formerly abundant in this country. Beverley in Yorkshire takes its name from a beaver lake Bever-lac.
Volatile from volatilis, passing swiftly; and this from volito, volitare, to fly up and down.
Monkey from monikin, little man.
Imitations from imitor, imitatus, to imitate or mimic, derived probably from mimeomal (Gr.), a word of the same import.
Limits from limes, a boundary, a determined point.
Putrid from putreo, putrere, to become rotten, deduced from putho (Gr.)
QUESTIONS 48.
Is every creature fitted for its sphere or mode of life?
What endowment renders them happy?
What is instinct?
Can it be that those of very limited existence enjoy happiness?
Give me an example of those creatures which enjoy a prolonged existence.
Name one of the short-lived animals.
What is indicated by the form of the badgers teeth?
Point out the adaptation of the squirrels organization to his mode of life, and his several wants.
Do you know of any animal remarkable for timidity?
What instance would you adduce to prove the hare a timid creature?
Can such a creature feel secure?
In what is his confidence to escape danger reposed?
Where does the mouse find safety?
What voracious animal renders great services to man?
In what way does the rat serve us?
Is the beaver a solitary animal?
When are animals noxious?
Enumerate some of the benefits we indirectly receive from those animals which are generally regarded with aversion.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What peculiar provision has the walrus in its tusks?
How is the house-fly enabled to walk on a ceiling?
What similar provision has the walrus?
How do its feet act, and what use does the animal make of this peculiar structure?
How are locusts noxious in the East?
Which species does the most damage to the agriculturists?
How is the passenger pigeon destructive?
Of what part of the world is this bird a native?
What caterpillar is destructive to or cabbages
How are its numbers diminished?
What birds feed on caterpillars?
SECTION VII. THE MAMMALIA.
Lesson 49. Clothing of Animals.
The clothing of quadrupeds is wisely adapted to their wants. In hot climates the sheep has a scanty coat of hair; on the mountains of Spain this coat becomes a fine, soft, silky wool; in Britain it is a coarser but thicker sort of wool, while in the northern countries it becomes a thick fur, mingled with long coarse hair. The hog, which feeds in houses provided for it, or finds shelter beneath the thick underwood of forests, has a scanty provision of bristles, but in its wild state its bristles are both strong and numerous. The ox, the horse, the camel, the deer, and the goat have a covering of hair. If any of these animals are kept in warm stables or stalls, their hair becomes fine and smooth; if they have to feed in the open air their hair becomes thick and shaggy. The colder the temperature the warmer their coat becomes.
Many animals supply man with fur. In summer their fur is thin, and the animals are not sought after; but when the frost and snow appear, the fur of all these animals thickens rapidly, and becomes very valuable. They are therefore hunted only in the winter season.
The fur of some animals changes its hue with the changing seasons. The fur of the ermine is of a pale brown colour in summer, but it changes in winter to a snowy white. The alpine hare of the Scottish mountains changes from tawny grey to white. This change of colour helps to protect some animals on the snow from their enemies.
Hedgehogs roll themselves up if attacked, and turn their spines towards their enemies. The tortoise has a thick shell, and can sustain even the weight of a man on its back. Thus the coverings of these animals are a protection from the seasons, and a defence from enemies.
QUALITIES OF WOOL, HAIR, FURS.
The sheep On no animal has so much care been exercised as on the sheep; the improvement of its wool being one object, and the increase of its flesh another. One kind of wool is in request for its length of fibre, other kinds for silkiness, fineness, or elasticity; some kinds have two or more of these qualities.
Sheeps wool alone possesses the fulling or felting property, that is, of being beaten into a compact, thick texture, as in woollen cloths. The short staples are the best for this purpose, which should at the same time be of fine texture. The long wools are combed and spun into hard yarns for various kinds of stuff,; the shorter varieties are chiefly used for hosiery. The length of staple of long wools is about eight inches, of shorter varieties four or five, while the best for woollen cloths is from two to three, or longer if the wool be very soft, as the Saxony wool.
Fur The skins of the racoon, the beaver, the chinchilla, the bear, the lynx, the marten, the mink, the fitch, the ermine, the musquash, the otter, the fur seal, the wolf, and of various foxes, are all imported from the northern climates of Europe.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LE8SON 49.
Hot from haetan (A.S.), to burn, ignite.
Scanty from skanner (Dan.), to spare, to scant.
SpainHispania. Spain and Portugal form the Iberian peninsula; a fine country, and occupied by a noble race, yet one of the most backward in Europe in the arts of social life.
Bristle (A.S.) byrst, a bristle.
Ox oxa (A.S.), from eacan (A.S.), to join or add; the former idea sustained by the yoking of oxen, the latter by the addition they make to a farmers stock.
stables from stabilio, stabilitum, to make sure; or from stabulo, stabulare, to house beasts; which come from sto, statum, to stand.
Shaggy from sceacgca (A.S.), a bush of hair, matted boughs or branches.
Furs fourrure (Fr.), sheep skins were worn as furs in the time of Charlemagne. The wealthy Anglo-Saxons and the Normans also wore furs.
Frost from frysan (A.S.), to congeal.
Snow from sniwan (A.S.), to snow; the small particles of water frozen before they unite into drops.
Hue from hiw (A.S.), representation, colour, likeness.
Ermine formerly written emerlin, the fur of the mustelia erminia.
Alpine from albus, white. The Alpine mountains are the highest in Europe; they form the boundary between Italy and France, Switzerland, Tyrol. &c. This great mountain range extends in a crescent-like form about 700 miles.
Spines from spina, a thorn.
Enemies from inimicus, a foe; formed of in, not, and amicus, a friend.
Tortoise probably from tortus , wreathed or crisped.
QUESTIONS 49.
Are all animals clothed alike?
What is the reason of such diversity?
What is shown by this adaptation of the clothing of animals to their habits, climates, &c.?
Does the sheep produce an equal amount of wool in all countries?
In what country is the wool fine arid soft?
Is it not equally soft and silky in Britain?
Of what kind is the wool of northern countries?
What animal is scantily covered with hair?
Why is the hog so thinly clothed?
Enumerate a few of those animals whose covering is of hair.
Under what circumstances do changes in their covering take place?
Has the temperature any influence in thickening their covering?
Are the coats of any animals worn by man?
In what season is fur of most value?
Are those animals hunted in winter?
Is the colour of furs unchangeable?
Give me some examples of the changes of which you speak.
Does the change ever prove serviceable to the animal?
How do hedgehogs defend themselves?
What protection has the tortoise?
Sum up the chief uses of the various coverings of animals.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Why has so much care been bestowed on the sheep?
What various qualities are desired in wool?
Why is it desirable that the qualities of wool should be improved?
What several manufactures depend for their prosperity and excellence on wool?
What animals yield wool and hair, besides the sheep?
What animals wool alone possesses the felting property?
What do you mean by this property?
What kind of wools are best for this purpose?
What use is made of the long wools?
For what manufactures are the shorter varieties of the long wools used?
What is the length of staple of the long wools?
What is the length of staple of those used for woollen cloths?
Which are the principal fur yielding animals of the northern climates?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 50. Peculiarities of Animals.
The peculiarities of animals fit them for their modes of life. Some animals, such as the cat, the rat, the lion, and the tiger have whiskers, which are supposed to be delicate organ of touch. The bear uses its paws as hands in climbing up the trunks of the trees. All animals that do not go into the water have their fur thicker on the back than on the belly; the others have the fur thickest on the belly. The horse has a solid foot; no other kind of foot would enable him to carry heavy loads and traverse hard roads. The foot of the camel is yielding, it opens and spreads, without sinking, in the sand of the deserts. Camels are beasts of burden, and have great powers of abstinence from food and water. Their humps are fat from which the frame receives nutriment. The Arabian camel, of which the dromedary is only a swift species, has one hump; the Bactrian camel two.
Some animals have snouts which enable them to turn up the earth in search of roots. The eyes of such animals are small and sunken. In the mole the eye is protected by a cushioned eyebrow which overhangs it. In the elephant the snout is elongated so as to form a trunk, which answers the purpose of a hand for grasping, and a thumb and finger for picking up small objects. The elephants trunk also serves it to take up liquids, and to convey both water and food to its mouth.
The ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, and many other animals have horns, which serve for their defence. The wild boar and the elephant have tusks. These are weapons of attack and defence, which are the more necessary as those animals have no claws, nor horns. The seal feeds on fish, and has webbed feet to enable it to pursue its finny prey.
PECULIARITIES OF THE MONKEY, THE SLOTH, THE BAT, ETC.
modes of life Such as the four hands of the monkey for climbing and taking hold of branches of trees, the hooked claws of the sloth for passing to and fro among trees, by means of which it swings from bough to bough with great facility; the apparently useless fore legs of the kangaroo, compensated by hind legs of enormous size, adapted for leaping its mode of progression; the wiry fingers of the bat, held together by membranes forming wings, and enabling it to fly in pursuit of its insect food; the eyes of the mole to whom ordinary eyes would be useless in his subterranean retreat affording just sight enough to perceive its prey; the shovels of the mole, enabling it to clear out galleries for its safety and that of its young; the paddles of the seal, with which it rows rapidly through the water, seizing fishes in their own element. These are only a few of the wonderful adaptations to their modes of life which animals exhibit fur the hoofs of the home, the claws of the cat, and the four pillars of the elephant are equally illustrative of the respective localities and modes of life of these animals.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 50.
Peculiarities from pecu, a flock, is derived peculum, a little flock, which signifies a stock of cattle given to a slave as his own, independently of his master; whence was formed the adjective peculiaris, peculiar, implying anything peculiarly ones own. Hence also is pecunia, money; whence pecuniary, because on ancient coins the figure of a sheep was stamped.
Whiskers from wischen (Ger.), to wipe or brush off; hence whisk, a broom.
Climbing perhaps from klima (Gr.), a declivity.
Solid from solidus, substantial, firm.
Traverse from transverto, transversum, to turn across, or from side to side.
Roads from hradian (A.S.), to hasten or move quickly.
Deserts - i.e., the sandy deserts, for there are several kinds of deserts; from desertum, a wilderness, deduced from desero, desertum, to forsake.
Abstinence from ab, from, and teneo, tentum, to keep; to keep from any indulgence.
Humps probably from umbo, a knob, lump, or knoll.
dromedary from dromos, dromados (Gr.), running, deduced from trecho, dramein (Gr.) to run; a species of camel remarkable for its swiftness. Camel is derived from kamelos (Gr.), deduced from gamet (Heb), recompense the camel being revengeful.
Bactrian Bactria is now Bokhara; the kingdom was of great note in ancient times.
Snout - from snytan (A.S.), to wipe; snout is the part snited or wiped.
Mole so called because he throws up the molde (A.S), mould or earth.
Elongated elongo, elongare , to lengthen. The trunk or proboscis is the most remarkable organ possessed by this or any other animal; it is formed of numerous small muscles, and is capable of extension and contraction.
Tusks from tuxas (A.S.), projecting teeth.
Seal from seol (A.S.), a sea-calf. The scientific name is phoca, from phoke (Gr.), which also means a sea-calf.
Webbed from wefan (A.S.), to weave, that which is weaved.
Finny from fin (A.S.), probably derived from pinnae, a feather.
QUESTIONS 50.
What is the meaning of the word peculiarities?
Are not all animals alike?
In what respect is their peculiar diversity an advantage to them?
Name some delicate organ of touch possessed by some animals.
What heavy animal climbs the trunks of trees?
How is it enabled to do so?
What peculiarities has the clothing on the backs and bellies of animals?
Is there any difference between the foot of the horse and the camel?
Is adaptation exhibited in these differences?
For what are camels remarkable?
Are their humps mere ornaments, or are they of use?
Describe the peculiarity of the Arabian camel.
Do any animals derive their food from beneath the surface of the ground?
How are they enabled to obtain it?
Are not their eyes liable to injury?
How are they protected?
Give me an example.
Describe an organ peculiar to the elephant.
Mention a few of the uses of snouts.
Have any animals instruments of defence placed on their heads?
Name a few so endowed.
From what part do tusks issue?
Of what use are they?
Name two animals which have tusks.
How is the seal qualified for obtaining his prey?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How are the monkey tribe adapted for their mode of life ?
What do the hooked claws of the sloth enable it to do?
What mode of progression has the kangaroo?
How is it adapted for leaping and not for running on all fours?
How are the wiry fingers of the bat formed into wings?
Why would the eyes of ordinary animal, be useless to the mole?
What amount of sight has it?
What other admirable provision has the mole?
Now is the seal enabled to prey on fishes?
Can you mention any other beautiful adaptations of animals for their mode of life ?
Think of the horse the cow the rat the mouse the dog and tell me bow each respectively is adapted to its mode of life?
SECTION VII. THE MAMMALIA.
Lesson 51. Actions and Noises of Animal.
Many of the actions and noises of animals are intended for defence or for alarm. They serve to protect either themselves or their young ones, or sometimes their masters, from danger, and to give notice of the approach of enemies. The horse and the ass, when molested, will kick with either their hind or their fore legs, and some of them will bite; but horses are neither vicious nor bad-tempered if they are kindly treated. The dog springs upon an enemy, and takes fast hold with its teeth. The goat protects itself, or annoys other animals, by butting with his horns. Oxen thrust their horns into any animal that attacks them, and if it be small they will hurl it upwards. The bear grasps its assailant in its fore paws, and sometimes squeezes it to death.
The noises of animals express their passions and feelings. The angry roar of the lion might be mistaken for distant thunder, or the rumbling of an earthquake. The barking of the dog is generally to give notice of the approach of a stranger, or to express anger; the howling of a dog is expressive of pain or uneasiness. The cat purrs when she is pleased, and mews when she is dissatisfied, or in want of something. The braying of the ass often indicates that it is solitary, and wants company. The chattering of the monkey is sometimes indicative of pleasure, at other times of anger or dissatisfaction. The horse neighs with delight to hear the voice of its master, and also as it approaches its stable or pasture. The lamb baas for its dam, and the sheep bleats in answer. The bull bellows in its rage, and the cow lows when it wants to be milked. Bats and mice squeak. But there are many persons who cannot hear the sharp voices of these animals.
ANGER, REVENGE, FEAR, CRUELTY, ETC., OF ANIMALS.
passions and feelings Animals exhibit anger, fear, revenge, cruelty, and other passions. The more intelligent animals select the object of their vengeance, while others, like the wild boar, dash at the nearest to them; the tiger springs furiously on the hunters if wounded; the rhinoceros couches his head to the ground and rushes on his opponent; lizards threaten with open jaws; the snake elevates his body, and projects his forked tongue with a hissing sound; rabbits run wildly about their burrows if the fresh taint of a fox is perceptible; horses, confined in a stable, are overwhelmed with terror if premises near them are on fire, and neither force nor encouragement can bring them out. Some animals put their prey to death at once, others cripple them, and seem to delight in their sufferings; cats are attached to localities, dogs and horses to individuals; many instances of gratitude are known of animals, others love to be admired and are vain of gay trappings. Thompson's Passions Of Animals.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 51.
Noises from noceo, nocere, to hurt: as though noise was hurtful or annoying to the harmony of nature and the delicacy of the ear.
Bite from bitan (A.S.), to gripe with the teeth, to squeeze.
Vicious from vitium, that which ought to be avoided; from vito, vitare, to shun or avoid.
Springs from spryngan (A.S.), to come forth, to issue.
Butting probably from bouter (Fr.), to thrust forth the head with violence; hence to butt, to abut.
Thrust - from trusito, trusitare, to shove or push through.
Grasps from grapian (A.S.), to seize by the hand, to gripe; or from grep (Heb.), to enc1ose.
Assailant from ad, against, and salio, salere, to leap or run with violence.
Squeezes from cwysan (A.S.), to bruise, to crush.
Feelings from felan (A.S.), to feel.
Angry from ange (A.S.), vexed, troubled.
Rumbling the sound of the word; or from hroeman (A.S), to cry out; to make a rolling noise.
barking_from beorgan (A.S), to defend; a bar is a defence, a barn is a defence for corn, the bark of a tree is its defence, and the barking of a dog defends us from thieves.
Stranger from extraneus, foreign; from ex, out of, and traho, trahere, to draw or bring off.
Howling - braying, chattering, purring, mewing, neighing, baaing, bleating, bellowing, lowing, squeaking, are all words formed from the peculiar sounds to which they refer.
Dam - from damar (Gr.), a wife, derived from damao, to tame, because tamed by the yoke of matrimony; hence also dame.
Voices from vox, vocis, a sound; and this from voco, vocare, to call, to name.
QUESTIONS 51.
For what purpose are the noises of animals useful?
Are their warnings ever useful to man?
How do the horse and ass resist their enemies?
Are horses prone to kick and bite?
Describe the dogs mode of attack.
Is the goat able to offer resistance when attacked?
How do oxen fight?
Is this the mode pursued by the bear?
How does he act towards his antagonist?
What do the noises of animals express?
To what may we compare the angry roar of the lion?
For what purpose does the dog bark?
What does a dogs howl imply?
How does a cat express pleasure or dissatisfaction?
What is the braying of the ass indicative of?
What does the monkey mean by his chattering?
What is the noise of the horse called?
When does he generally neigh?
How does the lamb call its dam?
How is this baa answered?
What noise is made by an angry bull?
What does the lowing of a cow generally mean?
What animals squeak?
Is their voice loud?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Animals feel revenge How do they show it?
Can you give any instance of the kind which you have seen, heard of, or
Read of?
How do lizards threaten?
How does the snake show its anger?
How do rabbits show their dread of a fox?
What is said of the terror of the horse in case of fire?
Horses have been led safely out of stables in such cases of danger by being blindfolded By whom should this be done?
What instances of cruelty in animals do you know of?
Can you give any instances of attachment of gratitude, or of vanity in animals?
Relate any anecdotes of this kind that you know.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 52. Motions of Animals.
The movements of animals depend upon their structure; their structure has regard also to their food, their localities, and their dangers.
In the monkey tribe the limbs are peculiarly adapted for climbing; they live on the fruits of trees, and the tree is their place of safety from predacious beasts. Bears are capable of either climbing trees in search of fruit, or of walking on the ground in pursuit of animal food; their pace is slow, but they possess great strength, by which to crush their enemies. Kangaroos move from place to place by immense leaps on their hind legs. They are furnished with a pouch in which they can conceal and carry their young. Timid animals, such as the hare and the rabbit, are constantly in motion; they run about, stop short, erect their ears, and listen for sounds of approaching danger. The goat is content with scanty food, it is fitted for climbing mountains, cliffs, and precipices, and for standing securely on a narrow footing, where no other animal of its size would be safe. The tiger lives by prey. The body of the tiger is small, and flexible, and its method of walking is on its toes only. It frequents the thickets and jungles of India, and pounces upon the animals so abundant there. The horse is one of the most useful animals in the world; for speed and hard labour there is none to match him.
The motion of the bat, or flitter-mouse, is rather like that of a bird than of a quadruped; it flies from place to place at short distances, or whirls about with an undulating motion, in search of the insects upon which it feeds; when at rest it suspends itself by little hooks, projecting from the foreclaw, to the eaves of houses, or to old walls.
Animals that feed by night have large eyes which cannot bear the light of the sun. They generally sleep in the day, or frequent thickets and caves, and at night come forth from their hiding places with eyes glaring like fire.
MOVEMENTS OF THE KANGAROO, THE OPOSSUM, THE SEAL, THE WHALE, ETC.
movements of animals Kangaroos are hunted with dogs for their flesh; they try to escape, not by running on their fore legs, like other quadrupeds, but by immense leaps on their hind legs, with their fore parts nearly erect; the opossums are able to coil their tail round the branch of a tree, and thus swing from it. The instinct to burrow not only furnishes some animals with habitations, but with a safe retreat in case of pursuit or other danger; the rabbit, the mole, the fox, and the badger, are well known examples of this instinct. When the feet of an animal are to serve both for walking and swimming, the toes are united by a fold of akin, so as to form an oar or paddle; this is the case with the otter and the seal. The whales, the narwhal, the dolphins and porpoises, are as truly mammalia as the horse or the cow; they bring forth their young alive, and nourish them with their own milk; they are hot-blooded, but they live the life of a fish; by the flapping of their powerful tails they drive themselves through the water, and their large fins are paddles by which they propel their large bodies about.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 52.
Depend from de, from, and pendeo, pendere, to hang; to hang from.
Predacious from praeda, spoil; the habit of taking spoil, or preying.
Pace from pas (Fr.), a step, deduced from passus, extended, i.e., the feet in walking; degree of motion.
Leaps from hleapan (A.S..), to skip, to bound, to jump.
Pouch from pocca (A.S.), a poke, pocket, pouch.
Conceal from con, together, and celo, to hide.
Listen from listan (A.S.), to desire or covet, to wish.
Content from cone, with, and teneo, tentum, to hold fast; hence contentus, satisfied, having no uneasy wish for more.
Cliffs from cleofian (A.S.), to split or separate; as cleft places in a rock.
Precipices from praeceps, praecipis, headlong; compounded of prae, before, and caput, the head; precipices are headlong steeps.
Frequents from frequento, frequentare, to go often to, to haunt, to resort.
Thickets from thiccian (A.S), to condense or press down.
Jungles - underwoods.
Pounces from pungo, pungere, to pierce. A pounce is a sudden piercing of the air, also a piercing or sticking of ones prey.
Match from macian (A.S.), to make, to fit.
Flittermouse from fligan (A.S.), to fly, and mus, a mouse.
whirls from hwyrfan (A.S.), to turn round with rapidity.
undulating from unda, a wave, is formed undulatus, moving as the waves.
eaves from efese (A.S.), the margin, edge, or brink.
walls from wilan (A.S.), to join together; as are the materials of which walls are formed.
glaring altered from c1arus, clear, from claro, to dart forth with bright- hess,
fire probably from pur, a Phrygian word denoting that which is burning.
QUESTIONS 52.
Upon what do the varied movements of animals depend?
To what has their structure special adaptations?
Illustrate this in the case of the monkey.
Where do monkeys conceal themselves from their enemies?
What does the conformation of the bear enable it to do?
Are bears quick in motion?
What animal moves by leaps?
Where do they conceal their young?
What sort of animals are generally in a state of motion?
Why are the hare and rabbit so restless?
Describe the actions they perform when in a state of alarm.
For what mode of life are goats adapted?
Do they require much food?
How does the tiger live?
Describe its form and method of walking.
What places does the tiger frequent?
Name one of the most useful animals.
In what respects is he almost unequalled?
What animal has a motion contrary to others of its class?
How does the bat rest?
What is the general rule as to large or small eyes in animals?
Mention the habits of nocturnal animals.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
For what purpose are kangaroos hunted?
How do they escape from their pursuers?
What peculiar movement have opossums?
Of what use is the instinct to burrow to some animals?
Give some examples of burrowing animals.
How are the toes of some animals made into paddles and for what purpose?
Give some instances of these amphibious animals.
In what respect are the whales, &c., mammalia?
In what respect are they unlike other mammalia?
How do they contrive to make their way in the water?
SECTION VII. THE MAMMALIA.
Some animals have their habitations underground; the mouse burrows in the earth or in walls, the rat lives in drains and sewers, the rabbit in the warren, the fox in his hole, and the mole enjoys repose and security in its dark abode, formed in the fresh earth.
Many of the larger quadrupeds, such as the deer, the wild boar, and the hare live continually in the open air; as they are not protected by man, but shelter themselves among trees and bushes, or retire to overhanging rocks and caverns during stormy weather. Trees afford habitations for many animals besides birds, whose natural haunts they are. The squirrel, the monkey, and the sloth, are among these. Decayed and hollow trees are also places of refuge for many animals. Bats retire during the day to the hollows of old trees and the insides of unused chimneys. Beavers construct themselves houses which look like little villages; they gnaw down trees, dam rivers, cut stakes, drive them downwards, interweave them with branches, and plaster them with mud.
Many animals hybernate, that is, they pass the winter in a state of torpidity; by this means they are saved from perishing by the cold, or from want of food. Some, as the marmot of the Alps, and the hamster of Germany, make themselves a habitation underground; those that feed in winter having already stored up a stock of food; those that do not feed become at once torpid and remain so till spring. The hedgehog rolls itself up in dried leaves, and conceals itself in the bottoms of hedges; the bear retires to its cave or hollow tree, and passes the winter in a partially torpid state.
THE ORNITYORYNCHUS, ITS BURROW, ETC.
Habitation underground The ornithorynchus is an animal of New Holland; it has a body and head like those of the otter, the bill of a duck, four legs, and webbed feet; it has the hair of a quadruped, it swims with ease, and it also burrows in the earth. Its burrows are from 20 to 50 feet in length, and are made on the banks of ponds; its nest of grass and weeds is formed at the extremity of the burrow, but whether it lays eggs or brings forth its young alive is not known; from its burrowing habits it is called the water mole, The otter, the fox, the beaver, and the field mouse, have all underground habitations with two or more outlets, by which they secure their escape in case of danger; the shrew mouse cannot penetrate the hard ground with its weak feet; but it shelters itself in the runs of the mole.
larger quadrupeds - A fixed house would be useless to animals which roam far in search of food, and as they are secure from danger in their bodily strength, they need no protection of this kind; monkeys and sloths have no habitations but the trees.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 53.
Burrows bur (Heb.), a pit or hole; holes made in the ground by animals.
Drains trainer (Fr.), to draw off gradually; channels through which liquids are gradually drawn.
Sewers from suivre (Fr.), to follow, and issue, an issue; courses or channels for water to flow through.
Stormy from styrman (A.S.), to agitate, to move with violence.
Haunts from hentan (A.S.), to pursue, to frequent the same place.
Refuge from re, back, and fugio, fugere, to fly or run to; a place of retreat and safety.
Chimneys from kaminos (Gr), a forge, furnace, or kiln. Before the time of Elizabeth chimneys were rare, but during her reign they became so common that apologies were made to visitors by those householders who had not improved their houses in this respect.
Construct from con together, and struo, structum, to form or build.
Villages from villa, a country residence; villosus means a husbandman. Villages are assemblages of houses occupied by those who bring home the fruits of the earth.
Gnaw from gnagan (A.S.), to wear by pressure, as of the teeth; to eat by continuous grinding.
Dam from demman (A.S.), or dammen (Dut), to stop up, to obstruct.
Stakes from stican (A.S.), to stick.
Interweave from inter, between, and weave; to intermix or interlace.
Mud corrupted from mihan (A.S.), to wet; wet soil or earth.
Hybernate from hyberno, to winter in a place.
Torpidity from torpidus, drowsy, idle, from torpeo, to benumb.
Marmot called the mus alpinus.
Germany from germanus, descended from the same stock; in allusion to the general resemblance in appearance, in social customs, and manners, of the numerous tribes by whom the country was first inhabited.
Partially from pars, partis, a part; in part, not altogether.
QUESTI0N8 53.
Are the habitations of animals alike?
Mention a few of those which dwell underground.
Which of these burrow in the earth?
Where do many of the larger quadrupeds live?
Name a few which live in the open air.
Where do they seek for shelter?
Are trees of use to animals; and if so, in what respects?
Name a few animals which find shelter in trees.
Where do bats conceal themselves during the day?
What animal has skill in building?
Describe a few of the operations performed by beavers.
What is hybernation?
Explain what you mean by torpidity.
What do they gain by being torpid?
Name some of the animals which hybernate.
Some hybernating animals feed during the winter, others do not What difference of habits has been observed in both?
How does the hedgehog contrive to elude observation?
How does the bear pass the winter?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is the country of the ornithorynchus?
In what respect is it like a quadruped?
In what part is it formed like a bird?
How does the shape of its feet show it to be a water animal?
What is stated of its burrows?
In what part is its nest formed?
What is not yet known respecting this strange animal?
What name does it get from its burrowing habits?
What other animals have their habitations underground?
Why cannot the shrew-mouse burrow?
For what reason would a fixed habitation be of no use to the larger animals?
Why is it they require no such protection?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Animals are generally divided into herbivorous, or vegetable feeders; carnivorous, or flesh-eaters; insectivorous, or insect-eaters; and frugivorous, or fruit-eaters. The habits of animals as to food are generally shown by their teeth, and sometimes by their feet or claws.
The horse, the ass, the ox, and the deer are herbivorous, they have broad mouths, and large blunt teeth for grazing and masticating herbage. The teeth of the beaver, the rat, the hare, the porcupine, and the squirrel, are formed for gnawing hard vegetable substances. These animals are called rodentia. Herbivorous expresses the nature of their food; rodentia, the manner of their eating gnawing. Beasts of prey have a narrower mouth, and a longer jaw; their teeth work against each other like the blades of a pair of scissors, and their jaw is made for seizing. Many of the monkey tribe, the bat, the hedgehog, and the mole, are insectivorous, they feed on insects, and their teeth are so formed as to enable them to crush the hard wing-cases which protect their prey. Frugivorous animals feed on fruits, their teeth are rounded, but without sharpness.
The feet of animals also indicate their mode of life. The unyielding hoof of the horse is adapted for the hard ground and for rapid motion: that of the cow for plains and meadows, that of the goat for rocky mountains, that of the sheep to form a beaten track on the wide-spread hills by which it can return; and that of the camel, which is a kind of spreading cushion, for traversing sandy plains and deserts. The rabbits foot is formed for digging and burrowing; the tigers for tearing its prey, the elephants for sustaining its ponderous body, and the seals for paddling; while the cats claws are bedded in a cushion as soft as velvet, thus enabling the animal to move noiselessly along.
TEETH OF CARNIVOROUS AND HERBIVOROU5 ANIMALS.
shown by their teeth The lion has sharp cutting front teeth to divide its food, next to them sharp, conical teeth adapted to hold fast or to tear its prey, beyond these are grinders with sharp-pointed prominences to masticate the flesh. Vegetable feeders have a different form and arrangement of teeth. Those that ruminate, as the sheep and goat, have cutting teeth only in the lower jaw, in the upper jaw there is merely a gristly pad; the horse, which does not chew the cud, but feeds upon grass, has cutting teeth in both jaws; this arrangement enables the sheep and goat to bite the grass much closer than the horse, these ruminants can therefore feed on downs, and commons, and mountains, where the herbage is stunted, while the horse requires a more luxuriant pasture. The molar teeth of herbivorous quadrupeds, with an uneven grinding surface, are composed of three materials, ivory, enamel, and cement, all of different degrees of hardness; the softer parts more easily wear away, so that an irregular surface like that of a grindstone is maintained; their jaws have a lateral motion, which those of carnivorous animals have not.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 54.
Herbivorous from herba, a herb, and voro, vorare, to feed on; feeding on herbs.
Carnivorous from caro, carnis, flesh, and voro, vorare, to eat; eating flesh.
Insectivorous from insecta, an insect) and voro, to eat; insect-eaters.
Frugivorous from frux, frugis, fruit, and voro, to devour; fruitdevourers.
Grazing from grasian (A.S.), feeding on grass.
Masticating from mastico, I chew; the act of chewing.
Rodentia - from rodo, rodere, to eat by gnawing; hence rodens, gnawing.
Blades originally written platte, and probably referred to the flatness of the instrument (a sword blade).
Scissors from scissus, past participle of scindo, scidi, scissum, to divide.
Hoof from hebban (A.S.), to raise; the hoof being the raised part of the foot.
Track from tractus, a trace or mark, from traho, tractum, to draw out.
Cushion derivation uncertain; perhaps from cush (Heb.), to cover; in Chaucers time it was written quisshen.
Seal's (foot) each foot has five toes, which are webbed, with pointed nails at the edge.
Paddle from patrouiller (Fr.), to dabble with the foot, to puddle; patte, in French, means foot of an animal.
Velvet from vellus, wool, deduced from vello, to pluck; whence velluetum (low Lat.), anything soft and fine like wool.
QUESTIONS 54.
What words are used to classify animals according to their food?
What does herbivorous mean?
What is its derivation?
What term is used for flesh-eaters?
How is this word derived?
What is the meaning of insectivorous?
What are fruit-eaters called?
How is this word derived?
Name a few of the herbivorous animals,
By what organs or members are the habits of animals as to their food indicated?
How are the mouths of herbivorous animals adapted for their food?
What animals have teeth fitted for gnawing?
What are gnawing animals called?
What difference is expressed in the words herbivorous and rodentia ?
Describe the peculiar conformation of the mouth in beasts of prey.
Mention a few of the insect-eaters.
What is there peculiar in their teeth?
What is the form of the teeth in frugivorous animals?
Have the locomotive members of animals any connexion with their mode of life?
Explain this in the case of the horse.
For what is the foot of the cow adapted?
How is the goats foot suited to its mode of life?
In what respects are the feet of the sheep and camel adapted for their mode of life?
Whose foot is formed for digging? for tearing? for bearing its great weight ? for paddling ? for stealthy movements?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How are the teeth of the lion adapted for his mode of life?
Do vegetable feeders require teeth of this kind?
What arrangement of teeth have the ruminants?
How are the teeth of the horse different to these?
What animals then would feed well where a horse would starve?
What places generally afford but a stunted herbage?
What domestic animals are generally seen feeding on such pastures?
Do you remember when you see these animals how much we owe to them?
What benefits do we receive from sheep? from oxen ?from horses?
What peculiarity is there in the grinding teeth of these animals?
What is the use of the uneven surface of their teeth?
What motion have the jaws which those of carnivorous animals have not?
What is the use of this lateral motion?
SECTION VII. THE MAMMALIA.
Lesson 55. Social Habits of Animals.
The social habits of animals differ according to their food, or according to their modes of obtaining it. As a general rule herbivorous animals are gregarious, and carnivorous animals are solitary. As a general rule also, domestic animals are gregarious, and wild animals have a tendency to solitude. But to both these general rules there are exceptions.
Buffaloes, oxen, sheep, goats, and the chamois, are all herbivorous and gregarious. In their wild state they flock together in search of food and for defence. Buffaloes, and oxen, when attacked, form themselves in array, and present their united horns to their enemies. Sheep in a fold easily become the prey of the wolf, but, at liberty, they range themselves with the rams in front, and give battle to their assailants. Goats and chamois seldom gather together in such large numbers as sheep, as they usually feed on mountain ridges; but nevertheless their general habits are the same. Young stags herd with the hinds in winter; and seldom remain alone in times of danger.
The wild-dogs of Africa, the jackals of Asia and Africa, and sometimes also the wolves of Siberia, will hunt in packs, but they only associate to kill their prey. All these are carnivorous, and in general solitary. Monkeys, which are mostly frugivorous not only live in herds, but appoint sentinels to watch, whose duty it is to give warning by making a chattering noise in time of danger.
Domestic animals of different species form an attachment to each other. This is especially the case with the dog and other animals. It is well known that dogs and horses have become friends from living together.
There are some animals that migrate at certain periods. The reindeer feed in the woods of Lapland in the winter, migrate to the hills in spring, and flee to the mountains in summer. These changes are for food or for shelter. The seal, which frequents the shores of Greenland in the summer, removes southward, and visits the neighbourhood of Iceland in winter.
SOCIAL NATURE OF OXEN, HORSES, LLAMAS, BEAVERS, ETC.
Social habits Oxen and cows will not fatten by themselves, but will neglect the finest pasture if they have no society, and some horses, though quiet with company in the stable or at work, will not stay in a field alone. Lions, confined in a menagerie, lose their natural preference for solitude, and have even spared the lives of little dogs that have been thrown into their den, and formed a lasting attachment them. The llamas, in their native mountains, associate in large herds, in the highest parts, and while the rest feed, one acts as a sentinel, and gives a neigh as a signal of an intruder. Herds of bisons, of wild asses, of Scythian antelopes, of sheep, and of swine act in a similar manner. Among social animals, the beavers are pre-eminent for their family union, and for their joint labours in constructive arts and in the provision of food. Wild dogs, wolves, and jackals, assemble in packs for the purpose of hunting, attacking buffaloes, deer, and even tigers. Nature seems to have implanted a hostile instinct between the canine and the feline tribes
of animals. - Thompson's Passions of Animals.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 55.
Social from socio, sociare, to associate, confederate, join.
Buffaloes from boubalos (Gr.), deduced from bous, an ox. Buffaloes are found wild in India and Africa.
Chamois the chamois belongs to the antelope group. It is about the size of a common goat, is timid, lives in small troops, feeds morning and evening, and inhabits mountains.
Stags either from stigan (A.S.), to raise, in allusion to its lofty head, or from stegan (A.S.), to prick or goad, with reference to its mode of defence.
Hind from hind (A.S.), one of the same family.
Africa from a, not, and phrike (Gr.), cold, shivering; one of the chief divisions of the globe the third in size, hut the least in importance. Three derivations of its name have been given: from Aphrike (Gr.), a burning clime; from a Punic word signifying an ear of corn, and this with reference to its fertility; and from the Phoenician word Havarca, the country of Barca Barca being a remarkable part or district of Africa.
Asia so named by the Greeks from one of their fabulous deities, Asia, daughter of Oceanus. Asia is the largest division of the globe, and the most remarkable of all, having been the original seat of the human family, and the quarter from whence the arts and sciences were diffused over the earth.
Siberia the northern part of Tartary. It is inhabited by several distinct varieties of men.
Associate from ad, to, and socio, to unite.
Sentinels from sentio, sentire, to think, to discern, to perceive; those who look out or watch.
Warning from warnian (A.S.), to take notice; to apprise of danger.
Attachment from ad, to, and tango, tactum, to seize or hold, literally or metaphorically.
Migrate from migro, migrare, to depart or leave; probably from gar (Heb.), a stranger or wanderer.
Lapland a cold, dreary country in the North of Europe.
Greenland a country north-east of the American continent, generally supposed to have been discovered by an exiled Norwegian chief.
Summer from sumer (A.S.), the season in which commences the gathering up of natures produce.
Neighbourhood from neah (A.S.), near, and gebure (A.S.), a countryman; a place adjoining.
Iceland an island in the polar circle, 10,000 square miles in extent.
QUESTIONS 55.
What general rules may we observe in the social habits of animals?
What class of eaters are solitary?
Are these rules subject to exceptions?
Name a few gregarious animals.
For what common objects do they associate?
Are there any defenceless animals capable of unitedly resisting an attack?
What order is observed by wild sheep when attacked?
Are goats and chamois equally gregarious as sheep?
Where do they find their food?
Do stags and hinds herd together?
What animals hunt in packs?
Do they associate for other purposes?
Are monkeys social in their habits?
What measures do they adopt to save themselves from danger?
Do domestic animals of various species ever live on terms of friendship?
Name a few instances.
Do animals change their localities?
Give a few examples of animal migrations.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How do oxen show their social nature?
Is this the case with any other animals?
In what case do lions lose some of their natural habits?
Can you give an instance of this change of nature?
Do you know the country of the llama and alpaca?
How do the llama and alpaca protect themselves when feeding?
What other animals adopt a similar mode of protection?
Why do they thus provide against danger?
What animals are pre-eminent for their social habits?
Can you give any account of their habits from your reading?
What animals assemble in packs for hunting?
What do you mean by canine animals?
And what by feline?
Do these two tribes agree well together or not?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
The horse, the dog, the camel, the ass, the reindeer, and the elephant, are the constant servants of man. Of these, the horse is the most useful; its back is perfectly adapted for a seat, and to bear heavy loads; and its mouth is better fitted than that of any other animal for the controlling bit; the foot of the horse is the only one that will sustain the weight of a great burden with rapid motion on an unyielding road. The wild horse is tamed in a few hours, submits to man, and becomes attached to his master. In speed the racehorse rivals the wind; in strength the horse is exceeded only by the elephant; in endurance of fatigue it is unequalled, though it is surpassed by the camel in abstinence.
The dog labours for man according to his strength and natural powers; he is swift of foot, keen of scent, an enemy to vermin, and endures long fatigue; besides these qualities, he is watchful and faithful. The dog is rarely a beast of burden in warm countries, where stronger animals abound; but in Greenland he supplies the place of the horse, or the reindeer, and in the Alps he occupies the place of the mule.
The camel supplies the place of both horses and vehicles for slow travelling, and the conveyance of merchandise, in the sandy deserts; while the dromedary is used when swiftness is required. The llama, which is a kind of camel, is domesticated in some parts of South America. It is employed in Chili and Peru as a beast of burden.
The ass has been the servant of man from the earliest times, especially in the East, where it is large, handsome, and spirited. In the more northern countries it is dull, slow, and diminutive.
The reindeer is to the Laplander, and the elephant to the Hindoo, what the horse is to the European, and the camel to the Arab.
SERVICES OF THE HEDGEHOG, THE MOLE, THE FOX, RATS.
constant servants Besides the direct and constant services of our domesticated animals, many others, inferior in size and appearance, are employed in rendering indirect services, while they axe following their own instincts. The hedgehog is one of these, for be feeds on the viper, and on other noxious animals, and he is not deserving of the slanders that are heaped on him, as it is impossible, from the construction of his mouth, that he should suck cows, or from that of his legs and feet, that be should climb apple-trees for the purpose of sticking his spines into the fruit and running away with them. Drainage is effected on some lands by the burrowing of the mole, who devours a large number of earth worms, and drives others to the surface, where they become the food of birds. To extirpate the fox would be injurious instead of beneficial, for he destroys rats, field mice, frogs, toads, lizards, and snakes. Rats may become so numerous as to be a nuisance; at the same time, they devour much putrid matter which would otherwise fill the air with offensive odours.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESS0N 56.
Adapted from ad, to, and apto (Gr.), I fit to, touch, or join.
Controlling from controle (Fr.), a check upon an officials accounts; hence to restrain, to check.
Bit from bitam (A.S.), to squeeze or gripe; that part of a bridle which passes through the horses mouth.
Speed from speudo (Gr.), to hasten; quickness.
Rivals from rivus, a gentle stream, a river as if contending for the exclusive use of the same river.
Endurance from induro, indurare, to harden, to last long, to bear or suffer.
Fatigue (Fr.), from fatigo , fatigare, to weary, tire, vex, or trouble.
Unequalled from un, not, and aequalis, alike; unparalleled, peerless, matchless, unrivalled.
Keen from cunnan (A.S.), to ken, to know, perceive, be sharp, cunning.
Dog dog (A.S.), dogge (Du.): the origin of the dog is a subject of much conjecture and dispute among naturalists; the derivation of the word is also uncertain.
Mule an animal remarkable for strength; hence its name, from molos (Gr), labour; an animal which performs much labour.
vehicles from vehiculum, a car or carriage, from veho, vectum, to carry.
Conveyance from con, together, and veho, vehere, to carry; carriage.
Llama called the American camel; it cannot be moved from its uniform pace by blows.
South America a country abounding with immense natural treasures, not yet developed. Chili and Peru are on the western side.
Chili now a republic, but formerly subject to Spain. It was discovered by Almagro in 1535; the capital of Chili was founded by Valdivia in 1541.
Peru a country of South America, discovered in 1524 by Pizarro and Almagro, two Spaniards; its conquest was completed in 1533. It is now a republic.
Slave derived from Sclavi, the name of a powerful tribe or nation which was reduced to servitude by the early Germans. The American slave trade was commenced by Captain Hawkins, of England, in 1562.
Spirited from apiritus, soul, courage; from spiro, to breathe.
Diminutive from diminutus, lessened; formed from diminuo, diminutum, from dis and minuo, to make or become less.
Hindoo from the Persian Hind, rendered indos in Greek. The origin of the term is lost.
QUESTIONS 56.
What animals are the especial servants of man?
Which of them is the most useful?
In what respects is its utility shown?
Is the wild horse easily tamed?
To what may we compare the speed of the race-horse?
Is the strength of the horse great?
In what is he surpassed by the camel?
What other animal is useful to man?
Describe his qualifications for usefulness
Is the dog ever used as a substitute for the horse or mule?
In what country is the value of the camels services most felt?
For what is the dromedary best adapted?
What animal in South America corresponds to the camel of the East?
In what countries is he employed?
What animal has commended itself to the notice of man both in the East and West?
Are the distinctive peculiarities of this animal the same in all countries?
Name other animals which are as useful in their countries as the horse is with us, and the camel in Arabia.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
You know of many of the direct advantages we receive from animal recapitulate some of them.
We also receive indirect benefits What is the meaning of this phrase?
In following their natural habits, they do so for their own pleasure, but we are also served How does the hedgehog serve us?
What practices injurious to mankind are attributed to the hedgehog?
How is it impossible he can deserve such odium?
And how does the mole serve us?
Why would it be injurious to extirpate the fox?
Are rats useful too and in whit way?
Yes - and it is stated that their skins form the softest leather for ladies' gloves, and that the manufacture is extensively carried on in some parts of France.
SECTION VII. THE MAMMALIA.
Lesson 57. Uses of Animals for Food.
Domestic quadrupeds furnish a large proportion of food for human existence. Those of them that ruminate are the most useful in this respect. All the ruminants are herbivorous, and all are cloven-footed. Living in herds, almost defenceless, and liable to be attacked, it is necessary that they should eat quickly. They crop the grass in large mouthfuls, and masticate it coarsely; it descends into a receptacle of the stomach, but though within the stomach it is not fit for digestion; it is formed into small balls in another stomach, returned to the mouth, and again chewed completely: it is again swallowed, passed into the third and fourth stomachs, and is then fit for digestion. This process is called ruminating, or chewing the cud; and from it the whole class are called ruminants. The Jews were only permitted to eat the flesh of animals which both chewed the cud and had a divided hoof. Thus they were restricted to the flesh of the ox, the sheep, the goat, and the deer among beasts.
These four animals, including their varieties, constitute much the largest portion of the food of civilized nations at the present day. The flesh of many other quadrupeds is also eaten; such as the hog, the bear, the rabbit, the hare, and the kangaroo. The hog is generally esteemed in the temperate and colder countries; though it is not eaten either by Jews or by Mahometans. The hog parts the hoof, but does not chew the cud. The hare chews the cud, but has a claw instead of a hoof. The bear, the rabbit, the kangaroo, &c, also have claws.
The flesh of young animals, as veal, lamb, kid, and fawn, is whiter and more delicate than that of full-grown animals, but it is neither so wholesome nor so nutritious.
EFFECTS OF A VEGETABLE DIET, AND OF TOO MUCH ANIMAL FOOD.
Famish - food - It is generally considered that a diet exclusively vegetable, or nearly so, reduces the strength, and renders the people of this climate liable to slow fevers; and that too much animal food subjects people to all kind of inflammatory diseases. The teeth of man enable him to live on a mixed diet, he has front teeth for cutting, and grinders for masticating, and he uses artificial cutting instruments for separating his food into small portions.
CONSTITUENTS OF FLESH. LOSS OF WEIGHT BY COOKING.
The flesh of animals consists of small bundles of fibres; when decomposed, its constituent parts are found to be water, fibrin, and fat; in 100 lbs. of lean beef there are 78 lbs. of water, 19 lbs. of fibrin, and 3 lbs. of fat. In cooking 4 lbs. of beef it is found that the 1oss of weight by boiling is one pound; in baking the loss is 19 oz, and in roasting, 21 oz.; mutton loses rather more than beef. The greater loss in baking and roasting arises chiefly from the greater quantity of water which is evaporated, and of fat which is melted out by these two methods of cooking.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 57.
Ruminate from rumino, ruminare, to ponder, deduced from rumen, cud; the grave appearance of cattle when chew- the cud.
c1oven from cleofian (A.S.), to cleave or divide.
Defenceless from de, from, and fendo, fensum. to strike; less meaning without; i.e., without means of defence.
Liable from liable (old Fr.), that may be bound or compelled.
Quickly from cwiccan (A.S.), to make alive, to animate, to be active; probably from coch (Heb.), ability to act, generally translated might in our scriptures.
Masticate from mastazo (Gr.), to chew, from matsch (Heb.), to squeeze.
Receptacle from receptaculum (compounded of re, again, capo, captum, to take), a small place to put anything in.
Digestion from di, asunder, and gero, gestum, to bear or carry, as the stomach carries the food before it is separated, to invigorate the body.
Chewed from ceowan (A.S.), to grind with the jaw, i.e., the jaw-teeth.
Swallowed from swelgan (A.S.), to devour, to engulf, to receive in, and pass on, or down.
Jews the remnant of the descendants of Judah, and of those who adhered to the house of David when the ten tribes revolted, and constituted themselves the kingdom of Israel: the latter forsook the law of Moses, and were, to appearance, lost among the Gentiles; but some of the Jews remain distinct to this day, observing their own customs, such as refraining from eating swines flesh. Israel are never in scripture called Jews, but the Jews are sometimes called Israel.
Restricted from restringo, restrictum, to withhold, to keep back; hence to
limit.
Constitute from constituo, constitutun, from con, together, and statuo, to place or appoint; to settle or ordain, to establish.
Civilized from civis, a citizen, a free man; a person of refined manners, as the inhabitants of cities are supposed to be, compared with the rustic population.
esteemed from aestimo, aestimare, to value, to think highly of, deduced from timeo (Gr.), to honour.
Mahometans followers of Mahomet, of whom there are many throughout Asia, in Southern Europe, and in Africa.
Nutritious from rutrition, to nourish; food having nourishing qualities.
QUESTIONS 57.
Does man use animal food?
What order of animals supply the best kind of food?
Name two chief characteristics of ruminating animals.
What is the meaning of herbivorous?
And what of cloven-footed?
Describe their peculiar mode of eating.
How many stomachs must the food pass through before it is fit for digestion?
What is the meaning of ruminate?
Do the Jews eat the flesh of animals that do not ruminate?
To how many beasts, then, are they limited?
Are those four animals much used as food by other people?
Name some ether quadrupeds whose flesh is also eaten.
What well-known animal is rejected by some people and eaten by others?
Has it the two qualifications named above?
What people reject the hog?
By whom is its flesh eaten?
Is the hare eaten by the Jews?
For what reason?
Are there any other animals similarly circumstanced?
Is the flesh of young animals wholesome?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is the general opinion respecting a vegetable diet?
And what evil results from eating too large a proportion of animal food?
What may we learn from the conformation of the teeth of man?
How does his intelligence enable him to supply the place of the teeth of carnivorous animals by other means?
Of what does the flesh of animals consist?
What are its constituent parts?
In what proportions?
What is the loss of weight in boiling four pounds of beef?
What is the loss in baking the same quantity?
What in roasting?
To what cause is the greater loss in baking and roasting attributed?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 58. Uses of Animals for Food. (Continued.)
The flesh of animals has long been used as food, and there is scarcely a species whose flesh is not eaten by one people or another.
Among the ancients and the savages of recent times, cannibalism was common. The negroes and the American Indians eat the flesh of monkeys. The South Americans eat that of the sloth, which is said to resemble mutton. The Africans consider the flesh of the elephant as a delicacy; the Esquimaux eat the walrus and the seal. Dog-butchers are common in China, and dogs flesh is also prized by the Mexicans and the South Sea islanders. Even the wolf the hyaena, the jackal, and the fox are eaten by some nations, although these animals feed on carrion. The armadillo, which also feeds on carrion as well as vegetables, is food for the Paraguans. The flesh of the rhinoceros is esteemed by the Hottentots, but it has a musky flavour. The flesh of the lion is coarse and tough, yet the negroes and Algerines eat it with avidity. The tiger furnishes a rich feast in a Hottentot village, and to the negroes of Guinea, who also eat the flesh of the leopard. Cats are eaten without disrelish by various people, both civilized and uncivilized. Otters flesh is eaten by the Laplanders and by the American Indians, and that of the sea-otter is considered delicate; the flesh of the badger is commonly sold in the butchers shops of Pekin.
The flesh of rats is eaten by nearly all people in the world, except Europeans: the marmot, the squirrel, the dormouse, and jerboa also supply the table of man. The flesh of the horse is eaten in many parts of Europe, and that of the hippopotamus by the Africans. Whales, porpoises, and dolphins also give variety to human food.
DIFFERENCE IN THE FLESH OF THE SAME ANIMAL.
scarcely a species The flesh of an animal has the same component parts whether its sustenance is drawn from delicate or disgusting sources; but the f1eh of an animal which is excellent in one country may be inferior in another. In England, the domestic poultry are juicy and full of flavour; those of the Coast of Guinea are dry and lean. The pheasant is a dainty with us; in Surat, it is poor and bad meat. The wild ducks in the country of the Hottentot are so oily as to be quite disagreeable. in Persia and Tartary, the sheep are large and good; in the South of Hindostan, their flesh is lean and dry. In Britain, goats flesh is strong, dry, and inferior food; in some other countries it ranks as venison. The beef of Great Britain is excellent; in the equatorial regions it is far less juicy. The liking for certain kinds of food results from habit, and taste is variable; the Esquimau would think our food poor and insipid, while our appetites would receive no pleasure from the dainties they most esteem. There are many articles of food even with us, which some people relish, but for which others have an aversion.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 58.
Ancients from ancien (Fr.), deduced from ante, before; those who existed in years long past.
Cannibalism by some supposed to be derived from canis, a dog, in allusion to an insatiate appetite; by others to be a corruption of caribal, from Caribees, the name of the people by whom cannibalism was first practised.
Negroes from niger, black. One of the rivers of Africa is called the Niger.
South Americans consisting of natives (red men) and descendants of the Spanish and Portuguese colonists.
Esquimaux native inhabitants of Labrador and other northern districts of America.
South Sea Islanders inhabitants of islands in the Pacific Ocean, some of which were discovered by Capt. Cook.
armadillos they are burrowing animals, protected with a strong horny armour.
Paraguay - was discovered by Sebastian Cabot, in the year 1526.
Rhinoceros from rhin (Gr.), nose, keras (Gr ), a horn; a huge and ferocious animal, frequenting marshy places in India and South Africa.
Hottentots they inhabit parts of South Africa; are slovenly and superstitious, though tractable and affectionate.
Algiers a fertile country of North Africa, now under French rule.
Avidity - from avidus, greedy, eager.
Guinea - a country on the western coast of Africa.
Leopard from leo, a lion, and pardus, a panther; a lion-panther.
Pekinm - meaning the northern capital; the largest city of China, and the seat of the imperial government.
Marmot about the size of a rabbit. The marmots live in communities; there are several species: they not only construct aqueducts, but drains to keep their abodes dry.
Dormouse that is, dormiens mus, the sleeping mouse.
Hippopotamus - from hippos, horse, and potamos (Gr.), river, the river horse. There is but one species; it is mild, shy, and timid on shore, but a dangerous antagonist in the water.
Porpoises from porc poisson (Fr.), the hog-fish; common in all our seas; the smallest of the Cetacea.
QUESTIONS 58.
Is the flesh of most animals eaten?
Do all people partake alike of the same animals?
Has human flesh ever been eaten?
What term is used to express the crime of eating human flesh?
Are monkeys eaten, and by whom?
Where is the flesh of the sloth eaten?
Is the elephants flesh ever eaten?
How do the Africans esteem it?
What animals are eaten by the Esquimaux?
What animal flesh is eaten by the Chinese which we reject?
Do other people eat dogs flesh?
What animal is esteemed by the Hottentots?
What is said to be its flavour?
Who refuse not the flesh of lions?
Is the tiger eaten by Hottentots?
What animal is eaten by the inhabitants of Guinea?
Are cats ever eaten? By whom?
By whom is the otter eaten?
Where is the badger eaten?
Is rats flesh used for food?
Name other animals whose flesh is eaten.
Mention a few marine animals whose flesh is eaten.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Does the food of an animal make any difference in the component parts of its flesh?
Is the flesh of the same species of animal equally good in all countries?
What is the character of the flesh of our poultry?
How are those of Guinea different?
What difference is there in our pheasant and in that of Surat?
How does the mutton of Persia and Tartary, and that of Hindostan vary?
What is said respecting goats flesh?
What is the quality of our beef compared with that of the equatorial regions?
We are accustomed to a variety of food, but we all prefer some kinds to others What does this show?
The Esquimaux would feel as dissatisfled with our food us we should with his Can we learn any useful lesson from this fact?
SECTION VII. THE MAMMALIA.
Lesson 59. Uses of Animals for Clothing.
The coverings of beasts were early converted into clothing for man. From the wool of the sheep we make broad-c1oth, kerseymeres, flannels, blankets, worsted stuffs, carpets, and many other fabrics. The sheep is therefore reared for its fleece as well as for its flesh.
The animals whose furry hides are used for clothing are the hare, the rabbit, the sable, the marten, the bear, the squirrel, the arctic fox, the racoon, the seal, the beaver, the bush-rat, the mink, the ermine, and others. The fur of beavers was till recently employed in the manufacture of the best hats, but beavers are less numerous than formr1y, and hats are now more commonly made of the furs of other animals, or of wool, cotton, or silk. The more valuable furs, such as the sable and ermine, are chiefly brought from Russia, but the chief supply of common fur is obtained from British North America.
The hair of many animals, especially that of the cashmere and Angora goats, is woven into fine kinds of cloth or shawls and ladies dresses.
The skins of all animals are convertible into different kinds of leather; no other substance is so well adapted to protect the sole of the foot, as the tough, durable, but yielding hide of the ox, after it has been tanned; the skin of calves or seals is more flexible, and is formed into the upper leathers of shoes and boots, which cover the more tender part of the foot. To the inhabitants of the Arctic regions the seal affords many articles of dress; they form coats of the skin, which they sew with its sinews; and of the gullet they make trousers and boots; they also devote the skin of the glutton, the polar bear, and the reindeer to similar uses.
THE ALPACA MANUFACTURE.
the coverings of beasts The wool of the alpaca has only been known In England since 1836. This wool has a silken texture, and is obtained in its own natural colours, black, brown, grey, and white, and of several shades of each of these. It has a lustrous appearance, length, softness, and pliability. A large quantity of this wool was bought from a Liverpool merchant, by a Bradford manufacturer, in the first instance to experiment upon; those experiments were successful, and a new article of clothing, a new branch of commerce, and the employment of thousands, of hands, are the results. It is blended with cotton, with linen yarn, with wool, or with silk; and the different stuffs produced can be made either expensive and elegant, or cheap and durable. Ladies dresses. vestings, shawls, bonnets umbrellas, cloaks, &c., are now to be had of alpaca. On its first introduction, the wool could be purchased for eightpence or tenpence a pound; it is now worth two shillings and sixpence, and the goods produced from it are sold at one-half the old price. The successful and eminent manufacturer who has thus made the alpaca trade one of national importance, is Mr. Titus Salt, of Bradford, Yorkshire.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 59.
broad-cloths first manufactured in England in the year 1332, by foreigners.
Kerseymeres a twilled fabric of woollen cloth, generally made from 6ne wool; its name is probably a corruption of Cashmere.
Sable a small annual of the weasel kind, hunted for the Russian markets by the exiles of Siberia.
Marten an animal similar in many respects to the sable, but larger.
Arctic from arkos (Gr), a bear. Near the North Pole there are two constellations (assemblages of stars), known by the name greater and lesser bear; hence the name Arctic Circle.
Racoon "procyon;" about the size of a badger; its skin next to the beavers, is most valuable in hat-making.
Musk-rat about the size of a rabbit; its fur is called the muquash.
Angora formerly "Ancyra;" since 1415 it has belonged to the Turks; its once-flourishing trade in wool is now much diminished.
Goats including the goats of Angora, Cashmere, Cappadocia, Thibet, &c. The wild goat inhabits the mountains of Persia.
Calves - from cealf (A.S.); the young of a cow; the young of oxen.
Arctic regions the countries between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole. gullet from gula, the throat or swallow.
devote from devoveo, devotum, to engage ones service, to consecrate, to vow.
glutton about the size of a badger, ferocious, nocturnal, and overcomes larger animals by falling on them from the branches of trees; named from its ferocious appetite.
QUESTIONS 59.
Does man wear any of the coverings of animals?
Name a few of the animals to which we are indebted for clothing materials.
What do we obtain from the sheep?
Name a few animals from which we obtain fur.
Of what material were hats once generally made?
Of what materials are hats now made?
Whence are common furs obtained?
From what part are the better kinds generally brought?
Is the hair of animals ever used in weaving?
Name two animals whose hair is thus appropriated.
To what use are the skins of animals generally converted?
What are the qualities of ox-hide when tanned?
What other skins are used, and for what purpose?
Mention some of the uses to which the skin and other parts of the seal are converted.
What other animals render us service by their skins?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What new clothing material has lately been extensively manufactured?
How long has it been known in England?
What is its texture ? and what are its natural colours?
What other excellent properties has the alpaca wool?
How was this material brought into notice?
What has been the result?
With what other substances is this wool woven?
To what various purposes is the alpaca cloth applied?
What was the cost of the wool at first?
What extraordinary change has taken place in the price?
What more extraordinary change has occurred in the cost of goods produced from it?
Here are two conflicting circumstances viz., a greatly increased price of the raw material, and a finished article at less than half the former cost How can such a result have been accomplished?
What is the name of the gentleman who baa thus benefited the community by his skill and perseverance?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 60. Sundry Uses of Animals.
A vast proportion of the beasts of the earth furnish man with substances for other purposes besides food and clothing. The elephant and the walrus afford ivory, their teeth and tusks both yielding this valuable material; that of the walrus is preferred by the dentist for making artificial teeth. The large bones of all animals are used by the turner, who makes them into handles for knives, and into many kinds of toys and ornaments. The horns of many animals are used for similar purposes. The intestines of the seal are used instead of glass by the Laplander, the oil of the seal for lamps. The fat of the bear is used by perfumers to make pomatum to cleanse and preserve the hair. The hair of the badger, of the camel and of the sable is made into pencils for artists. The oil of one species of beaver, called the castor, was formerly used as medicine. The hair of the horse is woven to form a covering for chairs, sofas, and couches; it is also curled to stuff these articles and mattresses. Curled horse-hair has the property of being stiff and springy, so that it forms comfortable cushions. The bristles of the hog are used for brushes, on account of their length and elasticity when uncut, and their stiffness and durability when cut. The whale supplies us with that most useful article whalebone; the blubber also affords oil in vast quantities; the fat of many animals is also converted into oil, or made into candles. The small parings of the horns and hoofs of animals when boiled make glue. The bones which are too small for other purposes are ground, and form the best manure for land. Vellum and parchment are made from sheep-skins, and are used by bookbinders, and for lawyers writings.
LESSONS FROM ANIMALS. THEIR SUBSTANCES.
besides food and clothing The services which animals render are both direct and indirect. We have already seen that some supply us with food, that others labour, as the horse and dog, and that others, in following their natural instincts, rid the earth of noxious animals and substances. Mankind have doubtless learned some of their arts of construction from animals, - the huts of beavers are far more perfect as dwellings than those of many savages; and animals have among them spinners and weavers, as well as carpenters and builders. The substances which animals supply for the arts and manufactures are of great importance and variety, and for many of them no substitute could be found either in the mineral or vegetable world. The ruminating beasts have rendered great services by indicating the kinds of vegetables that may be eaten without injury. The intelligence of the dog has aided man in acquiring his superiority over the brute creation, the greyhound outstrips the speed of man and seizes the hare, the pointer has a more delicate organ of smell than his master, and many dogs have a more perfect vision than man.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESS0N 60.
Vast from vastus, huge, big, large.
Proportion from pro, and portio, onis, from pars, partis, a part.
Walrus probably from walwian (A.S.), to wallow; it exceeds the largest bull in size, and belongs to the seal family; it is found in the Polar seas: its oil, tusks, and skin are all valuable.
Ivory from ivoire (Fr.), ebur (Lat.), derived from barrus, an elephant, the tusks of the elephant being ivory. Barrus, elephant, is said to be derived from barus (Gr.), heavy.
Dentist from dens, dentis, a tooth or tusk ; a dentist is an operator on teeth.
Turner from tyrnan (A.S.), to revolve; or from tornos (Gr.), an instrument for making things round.
Horn commonly traced to cornu, a horn, and korn (Heb.), a horn, trumpet, &c.
lamps from lampo, lampein (Gr.), to shine. Oil lamps were first set up in
the streets of London in the year 1681; gas lamps superseded them in 1814.
Perfumers from per, through, and fumigo, to smoke.
Pomatum this perfume was first made in balls, hence the term pomme (apple) dambre (Fr.), a ball of perfumes.
Castor from kastor (Gr), a beaver. This oil, obtained from the beaver, is quite liquid when fresh, hut it concretes ultimately, and is known by the term castorine. It must not be confounded with the ordinary castor-oil, used as a purgative, which is obtained from the seeds of the Palma Christi. See Lesson 105.
Medicine from medesthai (Gr.), to cure; medicine is that which is expected to cure.
bristles byrst (A.S.), to burst, also a bristle; they seem to burst through the skin.
Blubber the fat of the whale, the seal, and other animals, six or eight inches in thickness; it yields considerable quantities of oil. The carcase of a large whale is worth £500.
Candles from candeo, candere, to shine or glitter, to barn.
Vellum from vellus, the skin of a beast.
Parchment the skins of sheep, goats, and other animals, dressed to write upon.
Lawyers men whose business it should be to explain the rules of social life, as agreed upon by the community.
QUESTIONS 60.
Are we indebted to animals for food and materials of clothing only?
What valuable substance do we obtain from the elephant and walrus?
What parts of these animals yield ivory?
What profession is indebted to the tusks of these animals?
Which ivory is preferred by the dentist?
Are any other parts of animals of use?
To whom are the large bones of value?
That does the turner make of them?
Are the horns of animals also thus used by the turner?
What benefits does the Laplander derive from the intestines and oil of seals?
To what animal is the perfumer indebted for grease?
What is pomatum used for?
Which animals yield the best hair for the use of the artist?
Is the hair of other animals used, and for what?
Whence was castor-oil obtained?
What peculiar property has horse-hair?
Are hogs bristles of use, and for what?
What materials are obtained from the whale?
Into what is the fat of animals converted?
Of what is glue made?
Are the smaller pieces of bone thrown away?
What articles are made from sheepskins?
By whom are parchment and vellum used?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What several lessons have we learned as to the direct and indirect benefits of animals to mankind?
What animals are noted for their practice of arts of construction?
What animals make better huts than many savages?
What can we learn from examining a piece of honeycomb?
What insects erect larger fabrics, in proportion to their size, than man?
What animals spin, weave, sew, build, dig, &c.?
With what substances do animals supply us for use in our arts and trades?
Could we find substitutes for all these substances?
What services have the ruminants rendered?
How does the dog aid man?
SECTION VIII. OF BIRDS.
Birds are distinguished from other animals by their power of flight, the beauty of their plumage, and the melody of their voice.
Their bills are formed for tearing flesh, as the eagle ; or for seizing insects, as the sparrow; or for picking up seeds, as poultry; or for grazing, as the goose; or for striking, as the woodpecker. Their legs and claws are formed for seizing, as the vulture; or for perching, as the thrush; or for climbing, as the parrot; or for walking, as the pheasant; or for running, as the ostrich; or for wading, as the crane; or for swimming, as the swan. Their bones are extremely light, being nearly all hollow; their feathers add to their buoyancy; they row with their wings through the air; and steer with their tails. Birds with long legs have short tails, and in their flight they extend their legs backwards to serve as a rudder. In birds the food passes through the gullet into the crop, and is ground to a pulp by the gizzard. On opening the gizzard it is found to contain small gravel, which is swallowed to assist in grinding the food, thus supplying the place of teeth.
Birds can fill every part of their body with air, this increases their lightness. Their sight is acute, and on this sense they chiefly depend for food. The hawk kind have great length of sight; the swallows quickness of sight. In nocturnal birds the sense of hearing is most developed. All birds lay eggs; the parent bird in a few cases the male as well as the female sits upon the eggs, which are hatched by the heat of their bodies. Some birds live with man in a domesticated state, and supply him both with eggs and with flesh. Others are kept in confinement, to please with the melody of their songs. Many birds imitate the human voice, notes of music, and other sounds.
WHY A BIRD IS ABLE TO FLY.
power of flight Who has not admired the lightness with which a bird raises its body from the ground and mounts into the air? How this feat is accomplished is worthy our consideration. There is within the body of a bird a considerable amount of air; this air is heated by its hot blood, and thus rarefied, or made lighter than the common air in which we live and breathe; the body of the bird therefore always ready to rise, like an inflated balloon, so that comparatively little muscular action is necessary to cause it to ascend. The thermometer, which in the hand of man seldom rises above 96 degrees, under the wings of birds rises from 100 degrees to 110 degrees. There is an admirable provision to keep this heated air from cooling, in the warm covering of feathers that surrounds the body. The bones of birds are thin, and are also filled with air; they have wings formed of stiff, light feathers, With which they beat the air, and a tail which serves as a rudder to guide their course. Thus birds are formed for flight, and those that have long wings are able to fly quicker than those with short ones, and can sustain themselves longer in the air.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 61.
flight from fliht (A.S.), that which flies. This power is possessed in various degrees, some birds having more, some less.
Melody from meli (Gr.), honey, and ode, song or sound; a succession of sweet harmonious sounds.
Eagles from aigle (Fr.), aquila (Lat.); so named from its sharp visage; whence aquiline, as applied to the nose when resembling in shape the beak of an eagle.
Sparrow five species in Europe, two in England, viz.; the house and common sparrow.
Grazing from grasian (A.S.), to feed upon grass or herbage.
Goose from gos (A.S.); there are several aquatic species; but the domestic goose lives chiefly on land, and feeds on grass.
Woodpecker pre-eminently a climbing bird, shy, wary, and solitary.
Thrush from throsle (A.S.); feeds on berries, and also on mollusks and worms.
Parrot - perroquet (Fr.), a parti-coloured bird, remarkable for imitating the human voice.
Pheasant supposed to be so named from the Phasis, a river of Colchis, in Asia Minor; it is a splendid genus of birds. Perhaps the most noted are the golden pheasant of China and the Argus pheasant
Buoyancy from bois (Fr.), the piece of wood which floats above the anchor when cast.
Crop crop (A.S.), the highest part or end of anything; the crop is that receptacle in which the cropped herbage or other food is first deposited.
fill...air the lungs are enveloped by a perforated membrane, through which the air passes to different parts of the body, and even to the interim of the bones.
domesticated from domos (Gr.), a house; trained so as to live near the habitations of man.
Notes distinguishab1e sounds, from notum, known or marked.
Music - from mousa (Gr.), a song or muse; harmony; hence also the verb to muse; i.e., to follow the Muses, to contemplate, to dwell upon, to ponder.
QUESTIONS 61.
What are the distinguishable characteristics of birds?
Are the bills of all birds alike?
Explain the cause of the diversity, and give examples.
Are their legs and feet uniform in size and shape?
In what does this variety consist, and for what reasons.
Is there anything peculiar in their bones?
How is the lightness of bird augmented?
How are their wings and tails of service?
What is there peculiar in long-legged birds?
What serves them for a rudder?
Do birds chew their food like other animals?
Where is their food deposited?
By what instrument is it ground?
With what substance can birds fill their bodies?
How does so much air benefit them?
What sense in birds is particularly acute?
Is there any distinction between the sight of different species of birds?
Have birds one uniform power of hearing?
In what birds is hearing most developed?
What are egg-laying animals called?
What effect is produced by incubation?
What are caged birds kept for?
Can any birds imitate other sounds than those of their own kind?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
A silken balloon expands when it emerges from a dark cloud into the bright sunshine to what is this owing?
A bladder half full of air swells to its full size when held before the fire from what does this arise?
What fact connected with the ascent of birds do we learn from these examples of the rarefaction of air?
If you step out of a warm bed and place your feet on the hearthstone they are chilled, because the stone is a good conductor of heat If you step on a carpet, why do your feet feel less cold?
If you step on feathers, they feel warmer still than on the carpet What does this show you?
Then what effect has the covering of feathers on the body of the birds?
You thus see why the fleeces, hair, fur, feathers, and down of animals have been chosen by man for clothing What have you been taught in a previous lesson as to the object of clothing?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 62. Kinds of Birds.
Most of the rapacious birds, or birth of prey, are large; they have strong, hooked bills, large claws, and powerful wings; they include falcons, eagles, hawks, kites, vultures, and owls. Some of these birds feed on carrion, others only on living prey.
The perching birds have their claws so formed as to enable them to perch on trees; they chiefly subsist on vegetables, grain, insects, and some of them on small quadrupeds; they include the crow kind, finches, hornbills, crossbills, shrikes, thrushes, fly-catchers, robins, wrens, titmice, swallows, kingfishers, &c.
The climbers pass most of their time in trees, they feed on insects and on fruit; among them are cuckoos, woodpeckers, parrots, and toucans; their toes enable them to cling firmly, though they are bad walkers.
The poultry kinds include all the domestic fowls, the pheasants, curassows, grouse, ptarmigan, partridges, and pigeons; they have short wings, and strong legs, and the male birds have generally long tails; they feed mostly on vegetables, fruit, or grain; their flight is heavy, but they are good walkers.
The running birds have short wings which assist them in running, their legs are both long and strong; the ostrich, cassowary, and emu are the chief of them.
The waders have long legs, they feed in marshes on frogs, small fishes, insects, and worms; among them are the crane, the stork, the heron, the snipe, the plover, and the flamingo.
The swimmers are the ducks, swans, geese, gulls, pelicans, divers, and penguins; they are web-footed, and are awkward walkers; they live on fish, insects, and plants.
CHARACTERISTICS OF BIRDS.
Rapacious The eagle is noted for its strength of sight; the Egyptian vulture is protected for its services in clearing away filth and offal; the falcons have greater swiftness of flight than any other birds of prey.
perching birds Their foot is formed for grasping even in sleep; by pulling the tendons in the foot of a common fowl, the Claws can be made to contract or open; the perching birds clasp boughs by merely bending the leg, the weight of their body giving them a secure hold.
Climbers The form of the foot and beak enable them to climb; some of them, as the woodpeckers, have stiff tails to rest upon.
poultry kind Or scratchers; they have large bodies and a heavy flight.
running birds Their wings are small and their bodies too heavy for flight.
Waders They have slender bodies, long wings, and long legs; many are migratory.
Swimmers Some of them furnish food for man; others have a powerful flight,
as the frigate-bird, or are very active in the water, as the penguin.
EXPLANATIONS AND LESSONS.
LESSON 62.
rapacious from rapax, rapacis, devouring, ravening.
Falccons falco, a hawk, from falco, falcare, to cut as with a hook or bill. They make havoc among small birds.
hawks accipitris, from accipio, acceptum, to plunder or tear; hawk is based on the sound of the voice.
Kites their long wings and forked tail distinguish them from other hawks.
Vultures from vulture, deduced from volo, volatum, to fly. Their talons are not very powerful, hence they use their beaks more.
Owls nocturnal in their habits; the species are numerous.
Perching from pertica, a long stick or pole on which birds settle or roost, they are named insessores, from sedere, to sit or rest upon.
Crow from corvus, a crow.
Finches "finch" from the sound vink, vink, uttered by these birds.
Crossbills the formation of the bill was once considered as a deformity, the mandibles crossing each other like a pair of scissors; but as they live chiefly on the seeds of fir-cones, the bill is a most efficient instrument for getting at the seed.
fly-catchers muscicapa; musca, a fly, and capio, to capture; several species are found in England.
Titmice voracious and quarrelsome birds.
Swallows owing to their short legs they are bad walkers, but they have great powers of flight.
Klngfishers with regard to plumage the most beautiful of British birds; they feed on fish and aquatic insects.
Climbers scansores, from scansio, climbing. The outer toe in these birds is divided backwards like a thumb, which enables them to grasp.
Cuckoo cuculus, a cuckoo; in every language the notes of this bird have suggested its name.
Toucans known by their enormous bills; they throw up their food in the air, and catch it in the throat as it falls.
Poultry from poulet (Fr.), chicken; rasores, the scraping birds, from
rasor, one who scrapes.
running-birds cursores from curro, cursum, to run.
Waders grallatores, from gralla, stilts; the bodies of the tall ones appear to be on stilts.
Swimmers natatores, from nato, natare, to swim.
QUESTIONS 62.
What are birds of prey called?
What are their characteristics?
Enumerate some of the birds of prey.
Do they all feed on the same sort of food?
How are the legs of perching-birds formed?
On what do they chiefly subsist?
Name a few perching-birds.
Where are climbing-birds generally to be found?
On what do they feed?
Can you tell me the names of any of these birds?
Can they walk as well as they climb?
What order of birds includes domestic fowls?
Give me the names of some of this order.
Describe the peculiarities of their legs, wings, and tails.
On what do they generally feed?
Do they fly well?
Give me some particulars respecting the running-birds.
Which are the chief of this order?
To what order does the crane belong?
Describe the peculiar conformation of the wader.
Name a few of them.
On what do they subsist?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
For what is the eagle noted? the falcon?
Why is the Egyptian vulture protected?
By what means do the perchers grasp securely?
What provision have the climbers?
Why are the poultry kind so easily domesticated?
How do the wings of heavy birds assist them in running?
Why cannot the large running-birds ascend into the air?
Of what advantage is a slender body to a migratory bird?
Why should birds with long legs also have long necks?
What birds visit our fresh waters?
What kinds of swimming-birds are domesticated?
What wild kinds are used for food?
Lesson 63. Habits of Birds.
Some birds feed both on animal and vegetable substances. Rooks live in a community in rookeries. Some species of this family may be found in every country that is inhabited by man. Sparrows, chaffinches, linnets, bullfinches, goldfinches, and larks, may be known by their short, strong, conical bills. They subsist chiefly on grain. Crossbills are enabled, by their curious bills, to extract the seeds from fir-cones. Shrikes have hooked bills for tearing their prey, which consists of small birds. Swallows prey on insects; kingfishers on small fish; humming-birds live on the nectar of flowers: and birds of paradise on soft vegetables and insects.
Some birds are altogether carnivorous. Of these, falcons, eagles, and vultures feed by day; owls by night. Falcons seize their prey on the wing; eagles, the most powerful of all the rapacious birds, destroy quadrupeds as well as birds; vultures are devoid of courage, they feed on carrion. Owls prey on mice, frogs, small birds, &c.
Birds formed for climbing usually find their food in trees. The woodpecker disturbs insects by tapping on the bark of trees with its bill, it then feeds on them; the cuckoo deposits its eggs in the nests of other birds; toucans feed on eggs and young birds; they have enormous bills, which enable them to rob the nests of other birds; parrots feed on fruit, they have a grasping foot, and a bill that helps them in climbing.
The pheasants are a numerous and beautiful tribe, elegant in their forms, and brilliant in their plumage; the peacock, guinea.fowl, and turkey are nearly allied to them. The common domestic poultry belong to the pheasant family. All the birds of this family feed upon grain; and their flesh is excellent for food.
FEEDING HABITS OF BIRDS.
feed on animal and vegetable substances The vultures are natives of the hotter regions where the dead bodies of large animals would infect the air, if they were not rapidly consumed. The flight of swallows and swifts is always most elevated in dry weather, for then insects rise highest on the wing; in a more humid state of the atmosphere they fly lower, for their insect food is then near the earth. The different species of grouse live on moors and heaths; their food consists of the leaves and buds of firs, juniper berries, cranberries, bilberries, &c. The cross-bill, which breeds in this country, and lives principally on the seeds of fir cones, is much more abundant in the pineforests of Norway and Sweden. The secretary-bird derives its name from the plumes at the back of its head, which look like a pen stuck behind the ear; it preys on serpents and other reptiles. In the crop of one of these birds were found eleven lizards, three serpents of an arms length, eleven tortoises, as well as locusts and other insects. A visitation of birds in a particular district at one time and not at another, shows that their prey is then plentiful.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 63.
Rook from raucus, hoarse; so called, perhaps, from its hoarse voice. Crow and rook are originally the same word, with a transposition of letters. For oo was doubtless pronounced long o, as in door; now if you pronounce crow, crow, crow, several times, it will be the same sound as rok, rok, rok SULLIVAN.
Chaffinches more destructive than sparrows. Much sought after in Germany for their song; finc (A.S.), probably from the Hebrew word of the same sound, signifying to bring up delicately, or to look well to. Birds bearing this name, the chaffinch, goldfinch and bullfinch, are tenderly reared, and are much prized either for their song or their plumage.
Linnets so called from their feeding on line, i.e., the seeds of the flax.
Goldfinches common but very beautiful birds; they are called thistle-finches from their preference for thistle-seed.
conical formed like a cone, from konos (Gr.), a figure broad and round at the base, and tapering upwards to a point.
Shrikes so called from their cry or shriek; their flight is irregular and precipitate.
swallows they take their prey on wing, and migrate when insects come few.
Falcons from falx, a bill or hook; the bill and talons of these birds arc hooked, hence powerful instruments of destruction.
Owl from gyllan (A.S.), to yell or howl; the Latin name is ulula, from ululo, to howl.
Quadrupeds from quatuor, four, and pes, pedis, a foot; the bald-headed eagle of America feeds on lambs and hares, as well as on fish and birds; the golden eagle is alike destructive to the smaller quadrupeds.
Courage from cor, the heart, and ago, to do; to act from the heart, i.e., with bravery.
toucans are social birds, nestling in the hollows of old trees
guinea-fowl from their country, Gui nea; they are restless and quarrelsome, but not solitary.
Turkey - its native country extends from the north-western territory of the United States to the Isthmus of Panama.
QUESTIONS 63.
Do any birds feed on both animal and vegetable substances?
How do rooks live?
Are rooks found in most countries?
What birds have short, strong, conical bills?
What birds live on the seeds of fir-cones?
How do they extract the seeds?
What birds have hooked bills, and for what purpose?
What is the food of humming-birds?
On what do birds of paradise live?
How do the falcons take their prey?
Which is the most powerful of all birds?
Upon what do eagles feed?
Are the vultures brave and daring birds?
On what do they feed?
What bird taps on the bark of trees, and for what purpose?
Does the cuckoo hatch its own eggs?
What bird has an enormous bill?
Upon what does it feed?
How does its large bill adapt it for procuring its food?
How are the parrots distinguished?
Describe the pheasant tribe.
What birds are nearly allied to them?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
To what parts of the earth do the vultures naturally belong?
When do birds of the swallow tribe fly the highest?
For what reason?
Of what is it considered a sign when these birds fly low?
Why do they fly low?
On what do grouse feed?
The mandibles of the cross-bill shut together like a pair of scissors What in the purpose of this singular formation?
Where in this bird abundant?
From what peculiarity does the secretary-bird obtain its name?
On what animals does it feed?
What does an occasional visitation of birds in a district show?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 64. Habits of Birds. (Continued.)
Some birds are fitted only for running instead of flying. Of these the ostrich runs so swiftly that few animals can overtake it; it is a bird of the desert. The apteryx of New Zealand is also a runner, it has scarcely any wings, and its feathers somewhat resemble hair.
The long-legged birds are called waders, they have long necks, with which to reach their food in the waters and marshes. Of these the stork is held in great respect as a destroyer of snakes. The flamingo builds up its nest to the height of its body, and sits astride on it. Woodcocks and snipes bore with their slender bills into the moist earth for food. Some birds are admirably fitted for swimming. The albatross is the largest of all aquatic birds, it is the vulture of the seas. The frigate-bird is nearly as large as the albatross; it has wings formed for flight, it can float in the air, where for hours together it remains motionless, suspended, and at rest. It is provided with means for this by a large pouch or air-bag which it can fill with air, that is rarified by the heat of its body. Hunger, and the cares of the nest, bring it down; it feeds, without touching earth or water on the flying-fish, and returns to the upper element. The penguins are almost destitute of wings, they have no power of flight in the air; but under the water, in pursuit of fish, the rapidity of their motion is astonishing; no boat can approach them. Ostriches pass their life on the land; the albatross and frigate-bird are almost always on the wing; while the penguin, without powers of running or flight, spends its life on the ocean.
The flight of an eagle has been ascertained to exceed a hundred miles an hour; that of a carrier pigeon is about sixty miles an hour.
ANALOGIES BETWEEN BIRDS AND BEASTS.
habits of birds The habits of all animals, whether birds or beasts, depend in a great decree upon their formation, and there are some curious resemblances or analogies to be found between certain tribes of birds and beasts. The eagle has claws almost as sharp and strong as those of the lion, it is among birds what the lion is among beasts; both prey upon living animals. The falcon, among birds, is like the panther; both are active in their motions and bloodthirsty. The vulture resembles the hyaena, in feeding upon carrion. The owls are similar to the cat tribe; both tribes are nocturnal feeders. The scratchers among birds, as the barn fowls, pheasants &c., bear considerable resemblance, in their relation to man, to the ruminating quadrupeds: both are easily domesticated, feed on vegetable food, live in companies, and exhibit many varieties; the ruminants supply a more considerable quantity of wholesome flesh than any other mammalia, and the scratchers than any other birds; having short wings, strong legs, and heavy bodies, they prefer walking to flight, and are thus more easily brought under dominion.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 64.
Apteryx from a (privative), and pteron (Gr.). a wing; rudimentary wing bones are found in the apteryx, but the bird has neither wings nor tail; it is only found in New Zealand.
New Zealand a colony of Britain in the Southern Ocean; the country is divided into two islands by an arm of the sea, called Cooks Straits.
Waders from wadan (A.S.), vado (Lat.), to go, baden (Gr.), step by step. In these birds the neck is longer than the legs; they are thus enabled to search for their food as they wade along.
Flamingo the long legs of the waders, and the webbed feet of the swimmers, are found in this bird. The colour and habits of the bird are thus correctly described by Montgomery,
Flamingos, in their crimson tunics, stalkd
On stately legs, with far-exploring eye;
Or fed and slept in regimental lines,
Watched by their sentinels, whose clarion screams
All in an instant woke the startled troop,
That mounted like a glorious exhalation,
And vanishd through the welkin far away.
Pelican Island.
Swimming from swimman (A.S.), to float on the water or in the air.
Albatross or man-of-war bird; one of those known by the name longipennes, or long-winged; it is the great enemy of the flying-fish.
Aquatic from aqua, water; living in or near, or by means of, the water.
Frigate-bird the wings measure from tip to tip, when extended, from nine to ten feet, while the legs are only a few inches long.
Float from fleotan (A.S), formed from flowan (A.S.), to swim, to move along gently, as if supported by a fluid substance.
air-bag a sac in the throat, which it is able to distend.
Rarified from rarefactus, made thin.
Flying-fish - it springs out of the water when pursued, but cannot fly according to the correct use of the word, nor even change its direction.
Penguins their wings, though useless on land, serve them as fins in the water; they only go on shore to lay their eggs, and to hatch their young.
Carrier-pigeon employed to convey written messages and other light articles, which are fastened to them; now to some extent superseded by the electric telegraph.
QUESTIONS 64.
Are al1 birds fitted alike for flying?
What birds arecelebrated runners?
What place does the ostrich frequent?
To what country does the apteryx belong?
What are long-legged birds called?
What else have they long besides their legs?
What is the stork remarkable for?
For what is the flamingo singular?
What birds perforate the moist earth for food?
Name some of the swimming birds.
What aquatic bird is very remarkable?
Is it a good flyer?
What provision in its structure enables the frigate-bird to sustain itself so long in the air?
Upon what fish does it feed?
What birds have no power of flight in the air?
What capability have they in perfection?
What is stated of their movements in the water?
Is the ostrich an aquatic bird?
How do the albatross and the frigate-bird chiefly pass their life?
Where does the penguin pass its life chiefly?
Compare the flight of the eagle with that of the carrier-pigeon.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What meaning do you attach to the phrase the habits of birds?
And what do you mean by "their formation"?
What resemblance is there between the eagle and the lion?
And what between the falcon and the panther?
How does the vulture resemble the hyaena?
What animals are nocturnal feeders?
What birds resemble them?
Tell me some of the points of resemblance between the ruminating quadrupeds and poultry?
From what circumstance are these birds easily brought under the dominion of man?
SECTION VIII. OF BIRDS.
The plumage of birds is composed of a number of feathers, and in some instances of soft down: feathers are of two kinds those for clothing, which protect the animal from atmospheric changes, and those for flight; like the hair of beasts, and the scales of fishes, they are appended to the outer skin.
Feathers are composed of a quill, a stem, and filaments. The quill is light and strong, the pith which feeds it is like no other animal substance, it is neither flesh, skin, nor tendon. The small filaments which compose the beard or soft part of the feather are kept together by a number of little notches, like teeth. Birds have a little bag of oil near the tail with which they dress their plumage. The feathers of waterfowls are thickest on the under part of the body.
The plumage of birds is varied and striking; some have expansive tails of all hues, as the peacock; in others the richest colours of scarlet, blue, purple, green, and orange are mingled, as in parrots and birds of paradise; some have a feathered crest on the head, as the macaw; others have a tippet of a distinct colour spreading over the breast and back, as the ruff; some have a plumage of snowy whiteness, as the swan; others of a brilliant jet black, as the crow. Every rich colour, generally mingled with a golden lustre, bedecks the humming-bird; their feathers, small and scale-like, have the brilliancy of gems.
At certain periods of the year birds change their plumage; this change is called moultinq; and while it is taking place they are generally weak and languid. The new plumage is completed before the winter, and is a better protection from the cold than their old one, for the new feathers have an additional downy fringe, which increases the warmth of their covering; this fringe falls off the succeeding summer, and the birds are thus divested of their superfluity of clothing.
ADAPTATIONS OF PLUMAGE TO HABITS AND PRESERVATION.
the plumage of birds The plumage of owls and goat-suckers allows them to fly noiselessly, not swiftly like the eagle; swiftness is not necessary for these birds; they fly near the ground and among trees and bushes, while it is requisite that they should see their way as well as their prey; with glaring eyes and gaping mouths, they flap the air silently, for their feathers are as downy and soft as velvet, a suitable dress for the chilly air of night. Sometimes the entire plumage of a bird changes; thus the ptarmigan has an ashy-brown dress in summer, which in winter is changed to one of snowy whiteness: in summer it resembles the heath and lichen-covered rocks, among which it dwells and feeds; in winter it is not distinguishable from the snow. This change tends to its preservation by concealment; and so, as has been shown by Professor Rymer Jones, do the gaudy colours of the parrots and macaws, for their brilliant colours accord well with the gay fruits and flowers and foliage of their own tropical woods. Most of the aquatic birds are blue and white, thus sky-coloured, they do not alarm the fishes on which they feed.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 65
Plumage from pluma, a feather; plumage, a covering of feathers.
Atmospheric from atmos (Gr.), vapour, and sphaira (Gr.), a sphere; the air which encircles the globe: it is subject to various changes from several causes.
Feathers from fether (A.S.); some suppose it to be derived from pteron (Gr.), a wing, deduced from petonnai, ptesthai, to fly.
Filaments from filum, a thread; hence filamenta, little threads.
Pith pitha (A.S.), pith or marrow.
Hues from hiw (A.S.), colour, appearance.
Crest from crista, a tuft on the head.
macaw the macaws, cockatoos, and parrots are all peculiarly adapted for climbing, by the formation of their bills and claws.
Ruff the long feathers in the neck of the male bird stand out like the ruffs formerly worn; they are waders, and were formerly abundant in Lincolnshire during summer. The female is called a reeve.
Lustre from lustro, lustrare, to purify, to make brilliant.
Bedecks from be, und decken (Du.), to cover; to adorn with elegant clothing.
Moulting probably from melt (Heb.), to escape or be delivered. In the time of moulting (or molting), the hair or feathers or horns of animals are shed, and they escape from them.
Languid from laggao (Gr.), to loiter, to be slow, pronounced lang-aφ, the letter g in the Greek language being always pronounced like ng in English, when followed by g, k, x, or ch; as aggelos, angelos, an angel, &c.
Fringe probably from frango, to break, as fringe consists of broken, loose, hanging borders.
Divested from di, from, and vestio, vestire, to clothe; unclothed, deprived.
Superfluity from super, above, and fluo, to flow; sperfluo, superfluxum, to overflow; hence superfluities, more than enough.
QUESTIONS 65.
What is the meaning of plumage?
Of what is the plumage composed?
Are the feathers of a bird of one kind only?
To what part of the animal structure are the feathers attached?
Name the several parts of a feather.
How are the filaments held together?
With what do birds dress their plumage?
Where is this oil contained?
Where are the feathers the thickest?
Is the plumage of birds varied or otherwise?
Describe the peacocks plumage.
Describe that of parrots and birds of paradise?
What birds have crests?
Describe the peculiarity of the ruff?
What is the female of the ruff called?
Of what colour is the usual plumage of the swan?
Are the feathers of any birds black?
What sort of plumage has the humming bird?
Do birds exchange their feathers?
What is this change called?
At what season of the year is their plumage renewed?
What provision increases the warmth of their new feathers?
When are they divested of this additional warmth?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Why is not swiftness of flight necessary for owls and goat-suckers?
Describe their manner of flight. Why is it necessary for night birds to have a warm plumage?
What is the colour of the ptarmigan in summer?
What change takes place in winter?
How do these changes tend to its preservation?
In what climates are parrots and macaws found?
What are the colours of their plumage?
With what do these colours accord?
Birds with gay colours like these would be very visible in our dark green woodsWhy are they not as easily seen in tropical forests?
What is the general colour of sea-birds?
Why do not their colours alarm the fishes?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
A birds nest is a wonderful work; it is built without lessons and without experience; but perhaps the most wonderful thing is that a bird which never had young should build a nest at all.
The same form and materials prevail in the nests of the same species. The common swallow builds on the tops of chimneys; the martin in the corners of windows, or under the eaves of houses. The ostrich lays her eggs in the sand of the desert. Most of the water-fowls and waders lay their eggs upon the bare ground; those that frequent the sea, on the rocks around the coast. The eagle builds his eyrie on inaccessible rocks; it is flat and large, and is built for the life of the bird. The storks build on churches and on the tops of houses. Birds of the crow kind usually build their nests in trees, of twigs woven together like basket work. The domestic fowls and all of the pheasant kind scratch a hole in the ground, and line it with a little grass or straw. The social grosbeak builds in communities. The tailor-bird suspends its purse-like nest at the extreme branches of trees.
The smaller birds build with the greatest art, and generally in hedges, shrubs, or bushes; though some of them, as the skylark and bunting, build on the ground. Their nests are built closer and warmer than those of the larger birds; some are covered with moss of the same colour as the bark of the bush to which they are attached, others are in a slanting direction to keep out the rain; some are placed in the shape of a purse, others like a cup. In all, the size is in proportion to the number and size of the young ones to be reared in them. A few twigs, a little hair, moss, or bents of grass are generally all the materials required.
MANS SKILL IS ACQUIRED THAT OF BIRDS, NATURAL.
nests of birds Man improves in the arts he practises; be transmits information to his successors &o that the labours of one generation serve as a foundation for the next. The inferior animals learn nothing from those which have preceded them. The bottle-tits nest, shaped like a bottle, curious and beautiful as it is, presents no improvement on the first that was ever formed; the goldfinch weaves its nest with elaborate skill, but its construction is not varied by succeeding generations. The Baltimore oriole makes a beautiful hanging nest of flat, hemp, tow, hair, and wool, all woven into a complete cloth, and tightly sewed together with horse-hair. The tailor-bird of Hindostan selects a plant with large leaves, then gathers cotton from the cotton-shrub, which it spins to a thread, by means of its long bill and slender feet, and then, as with a needle, it sews the leaves together to conceal its nest. The bowerbirds of Australia build bowers of fanciful and elegant construction, to which they resort for their sports: it appears these bowers are not used as nests, but only as places of resort and recreation. Gosses Zoology.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
Lesson 66.
Nest (A.S.), a place fOr young.
Swallow swalewe (A.s.); the glad prophet of the year, the harbinger of the best season : it seizes its food flying with its mouth wide open, hence its name.
Martin the martin arrives in this country about ten days later than the swallow.
Ostrich the eggs of the ostrich weigh about three pounds each.
Waterfowls ducks, geese, gannets, divers, gulls, puffins, penguins, &c.
Waders cranes, herons, bitterns, &c.
Eyrie from eier (Ger.), an egg; eyrie is therefore a repository for eggs. This word is also said to be derived from airo (Gr.), to lift up or raise on high; the nest where birds of prey hatch their young, so called because built on high inaccessible places. In one eyrie in Germany the remains of 300 ducks and 40 hares were found.
Inaccessible from in, not, and ad, to, and cedo, to go; unapproachable.
Storks from storge (Gr.), filial love; so called from the great care they take of the parent bird when grown old. They pass the winter in Africa, whence they return to the nests they had occupied the previous year. In most countries storks are esteemed from their habit of destroying vermin.
Grosbeak distinguished by their thick bill, by which they are able to break
the stones of haws, cherries, &c.
tailor bird so called from the curious and skilful manner in which it sews its nest together.
Slanting from slinta, slant (Swed.), to slip, to move in an oblique direction; allied to slinking, not straight forwards.
Purse from bursa (Gr.), leather.
Twigs probably from twiccian (A.S), to twitch or snatch; as a small branch from a tree.
Moss probably from moschos (Gr.) soft, tender.
Grass from grasian (A.S.), to pasture, to feed; grass is that on which cattle feed.
QUESTIONS 66.
What constructions of birds are highly worthy of out admiration?
What is very surprising in connexion with the nests of birds?
Do birds build their nests in all places alike?
Which of them build on chimneys?
How does the swallow fly?
Where does the martin build?
When does the martin arrive in England?
Does the ostrich build a nest?
Are waterfowl and waders good builders?
Mention some of the waterfowl.
Mention some of the waders.
Where does the eagle build?
What is the meaning of eyrie?
Do storks build, and if so, where?
What birds build in trees?
Do any birds build on the ground?
What birds build in communities?
What is the meaning of communities?
How does the tailor-bird build?
Which birds build with the greatest care?
With what materials do they build?
Mention some of the peculiarities in the construction of nests.
Is the proper size of the nest regarded by the little architect?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How does man improve in the arts?
How does a new generation improve on the preceding one?
Do the inferior animals make progress in this way?
What may we infer respecting birds nests, since no change or improvement. takes place in their construction?
From what does the bottle-tit receive its name?
Of what materials does the Baltimore oriole make its nest?
How does the tailor-bird set to work at its nest?
Can you give me a description of a magpies nest? a swallows? a skylarks? a blackbirds?
What is stated of the bower-birds of Australia?
SECTION VIII. OF BIRDS.
Nearly all birds utter vocal sounds expressive of pleasure or pain. That these notes and cries serve them instead of language there can be little doubt. While the nest is building, or while the tedious hours of incubation are passing, the songs give joy to the mother bird, and when the young are hatched they yield pleasure to the callow brood.
Among the birds that inhabit or visit this country, the chief songsters are the nightingale, the thrush, the blackbird, the linnet, the goldfinch, the wren, and the robin; among the imitating birds, the parrot is a noted talker; the magpie, the jackdaw, and the starling are also taught to speak sentences. The bullfinch and parrot can be taught a variety of tunes. No bird in England, however, equals the mocking-bird of America, which is a species of thrush. He imitates the notes of all other birds, from the humming-bird to the eagle. His voice is full, strong, and musical, and in his native woods it rises above all others; he expands his wings and tail, and keeps time to his own music. During moonlight he sings the whole night; he perfectly imitates the bark of a dog, the mewing of a cat, the cry of a hurt chicken, the crowing of cocks, the cackling of hens, the screaming of swallows. He deceives the sportsman by his imitations of wild birds, and he gives utterance to the songs of the most musical of the feathered tribes.
In the gray dawn of the summer morning the nightingale is the first heard, then the woodlark; at sunrise the skylark soars and sings; then the blackbird and the thrush; these are followed by the titlark, the linnet the robin, and a host of others, among which may be heard the monotonous voice of the cuckoo.
EXPRESSIVE CRIES OF BIRDS.
Expressive of pleasure or pain That the notes and calls of birds serve them instead of language there can be little doubt. A person familiar with them can distinguish between those of pleasure and those of alarm; if he hears swallows screaming in a certain note, he is well aware that cats or hawks are about. The sight of a weasel, too, will cause clamour and outcries among the small birds. There are several birds of South America, of the same family as the English goat-sucker, which have received their names from the different sounds, like words, which they utter. One of them cries "Who are you? who, who, who are you?" another, in a plaintive tone, says, Willy come go; willy, willy, willy come go; while another, a very common one, is known by the name of whip-poor-will, from constantly repeating those words. The kittiwake of our coasts obtains its name from its cry, which varies from kitty-wake to get away. The voice of the bell-bird of South America and Africa can be heard three miles off tolling like a distant church bell; it is heard at midnight, with a pause of about a minute between each toll. Stanley.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 67.
Vocal from vox, vocis, a sound or note, the voice.
Expressive from exprimo, expressum, to draw out, to pronounce, to declare.
Tedious from tedium, fatiguing, tiresome.
Incubation from in, upon, and cubo, to lie, as at table; incubo, incubitum, to sit or lie upon.
Mother from modor (A.S.), meter (Gr.), mater (Lat.), the female parent.
Hatched probably from hatsen (Heb.), the lap, the bosom; to produce young from eggs either by incubation or by artificial heat.
Callow from calvus, bald; naked, unfledged.
Brood from braedan (A.S.), to feed; a brood consists of those which are bred or fed.
Nightingale - galan (A.S), to sing; plain rusty brown in its plumage. It arrives in England in April, and sings till its young are fledged: it does not visit the more northern, nor yet the more western counties.
thrush has powerful notes, but they have not much variety.
Linnet less beautiful, but more melodious than the goldfinch.
Wren - renn (Heb.), to cry out, or sing aloud; its note is loud even in the depth of winter.
Robin rudduck (A.S.), ruddy, from its colour; its note is soft and sweet, and is continued throughout the winter.
Parrot a tropical bird; the peculiarity of its nostrils and tongue enable it to imitate the human voice.
Magpie a handsome chattering bird.
Bullfinch piping bullfinches often realize a large price.
Mocking-bird the several species are peculiar to America.
Humming-bird-these birds have a distinct chirrup, in addition to the humming occasioned by the fluttering of their wings.
Woodlark its notes are peculiarly soft and plaintive.
Monotonous from monos (Gr.), uniform, one, or sole, and tonos (Gr.), a tone or note; one-toned.
Cuckoo the arrival of the cuckoo is a sure sign of the tardiness or forwardness of the spring: it lays its eggs in the nest of other birds, generally in that of the hedge-sparrow.
QUESTIONS 67.
Have birds a voice?
What do their sounds express?
When does the mother-bird derive pleasure from its mates song?
Name a few of the songsters of this country.
What birds are capable of being taught to speak?
What other birds imitate the human voice?
Are there any birds capable of learning various tunes?
Which is the most remarkable of all the imitative birds?
What notes of other birds does he imitate?
What are the characters of his voice?
Why is it so distinguishable?
Can he imitate other sounds besides those of birds?
Tell me some of them.
Who is sometimes deceived by him?
When is the nightingale heard?
What bird succeeds it in song?
When does the skylark sing and soar?
What birds follow the blackbird and thrush?
What is the note of the cuckoo termed?
What does this mean?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
For what are the notes and calls of birds a substitute?
Can the notes of pleasure be distinguished from those of pain?
When do swallows scream with alarm?
What sight causes a clamour among small birds?
Some birds of South America utter sounds like sentences What are these words?
Why does the Whip-poor-Will get that name?
What are the cries of the kittiwake?
What curious fact is stated respecting the Bell-bird?
In what countries is this bird found?
At what time of the day?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 68. Migrations of Birds.
Some species of birds migrate from one country to another in search of food, or for the sake of a milder climate. They would perish for want of support if they were confined to one country; they therefore go where their food is abundant. It is instinct that teaches them when the appointed time for their migration has arrived. In making this change they often cross wide seas and extensive countries. Some birds migrate by night, these are night-feeders; others by day; some in large flocks, others alone.
Among birds that migrate from England to milder climates are the swallow, the cuckoo, the nightingale, the swift, the martin, and many of the small birds. The stork, the crane, the curlew, the turtle-dove, the woodcock, the swan, the wild-duck, and wild goose are also migratory birds. Some kinds of birds assemble in large flocks for a few days previous to their migration; this is especially the case with swallows.
Some birds, as the nightingale, the swallow, and the cuckoo, arrive towards the end of spring, and depart towards the end of autumn; these are summer birds of passage. Swans, wild-geese, and wild-ducks, come from more northern climates to pass the winter here; in summer they inhabit the polar regions of Spitzbergen, Lapland, and Greenland; these are winter birds of passage.
Water-birds generally migrate by night; their favourite haunts are the fen-countries. About the time of their journeys, on a still night, the whistling sounds of their wings, and the shrill notes of call by which these large flights are kept together in the darkness, may frequently be heard over head.
WHY BIRDS MIGRATE UNKNOWN. THE PASSENGER PIGEON.
Migrate from one country to another The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times, and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming. This impulse for change of place is one of the instincts of migratory birds which we cannot explain. The arrival of certain birds in this country in spring, is a sign of renewed vegetation and of brighter skies. There is seldom the difference of a week in the time of the arrival of some species of these visitors, but their time of departure is less exact, and is accounted for on the supposed disinclination of the parent birds to leave their young ones. The migrations of the passenger pigeon is one of the wonderful pages in the history of nature. It is difficult to conceive of a flight of birds 180 miles in length, and numbering not less than 1,000 millions! Allowing each bird to consume half a pint of grain a day, they would require above 8,000,000 bushels a day; yet such flights sometimes occur for several successive days. Their breeding-places are large forest tracts fifty miles in length, and four or five in breadth, In which every tree is occupied by from 50 to 100 nests.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 68.
Species from specio, to see; things that present the same general appearance.
Migrate from migro, migrare, to move from one place to another.
Swallow winter is unknown to him he leaves the green meadows of England in autumn for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms of Africa.
Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green,
Thy sky is ever clear;
Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year,
Nightingale the song of the nightingale is the outpouring of joy, and not of sadness, as poets have often supposed.
Swift of all birds, this has, proportionally, the longest wings, hence its untiring and rapid flight.
Martin the arrival of the martin later than the swallow is attributed to its smaller expanse of wing, and diminished powers of flight.
Stork those who have travelled in Holland are aware of the provision of boxes for nests made for its reception. The affection of the stork for its parent is remarkable.
Crane a very rare visitant in England; it is said to winter in Africa.
Curlew a shy bird; its haunts in Britain are the large, boggy, heathy moors, where it feeds on worms, flies, and water insects.
Turtle-dove the smallest of the wild pigeons, not a very common visitant in England.
Woodcock fond of plantations near soft marshy tracts; its chief food is the common earth-worm; a few breed in England.
Swan beside the tame swan, two species of wild swan visit these countries in winter; there are black swans in New Holland.
Wild geese their flights are often seen to change from a straight line to a wedge-shaped figure like the letter ">"
wild ducks they are taken by thousands in decoys, by the fowler.
journeys from journee (Fr.), from jour, a day; a days travel; probably from diurnum, the Roman senate-book, in which each days proceedings were recorded.
Whistling - a word formed from the sound.
QUESTIONS 68.
What does migrate mean?
What causes birds to migrate?
What power teaches them the proper time and place?
What is instinct?
Show that winter is unknown to the swallow.
Do birds always migrate by night?
Which of them migrate at night?
Do they migrate in flocks or alone?
Mention some of the birds that leave England for warmer climates.
What is said of the song of the nightingale?
How do you account for the rapid flight of the swift?
Do swallows migrate in flocks or one at a time?
Name some of the summer birds of passage.
When do they arrive, and when depart?
Are we visited by any birds in winter?
Where are they in the summer?
How are they distinguished?
When do water-birds migrate?
What is there remarkable in the flights of wild geese?
What sounds do they emit on their course?
Of what use is this whistling supposed to be to them?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What quotation is given from the Bible respecting the migratory instinct of birds?
Of what is the arrival of birds in spring a sign?
What is there remarkable as to the time of their arrival?
What is the supposed reason why they are less exact as to their departure?
A flight of the passenger pigeon has been known of 180 miles in length How many birds was it calculated to consist of?
What quantity of grain would be required to feed them daily?
How are their breeding places described?
Note on Migratory Birds Sand martins arrive as early as March 27, and depart as late as Sept. 21; chimney swallows arrive about April 11, depart Oct. 20; martins arrive about March 30, and depart about the same time as swallows; swifts arrive April 27, depart Sept. 15. Redstarts and whitethroats arrive April 6, leave Sept. 5. The cuckoo arrives about April 10, and goes about June 30. Fieldfares arrive Sept. 29, leave May 1; and woodcocks arrive Oct. 15, and depart April 2. Stanley on Birds.
SECTION VIII. OF BIRDS.
Birds render many services to man. Some are useful for food, some supply him with feathers, and some rid him of troublesome insects and noxious animals. The birds chiefly used for food are those of the pheasant kind, including the domestic poultry, and all those that are usually called "game;" these birds, and the duck and goose, both wild and tame, furnish man with a large supply of nutritious food. The woodcock, the snipe, the pigeon, the lark, the plover, and many other kinds are eaten by the people of this and other countries. Immense quantities of eggs are also supplied by birds. It is said that a domestic hen of a good breed will lay 200 or 300 eggs in a year.
The feathers, and down of birds are used for stuffing beds; the under feathers of water-fowl are the best for this purpose from their softness and elasticity. From birds we also obtain quills for writing, and the feathers of the ostrich are used as graceful ornaments in the head-dress.
Birds render other services to man. The crow, the kite, the hawk, and the raven feed on field-mice, which if not destroyed. would devour a vast quantity of corn. The vulture feeds on carrion which in hot countries would infect the air. The stork destroys snakes, frogs, and lizards. The rook may be justly called the farmers friend, for though he does some mischief, he does more good by destroying the larvae of injurious insects.
Many of the small birds peck off the buds of trees, and feed on seeds; but their benefits are much greater than their injuries. Sparrows have been observed to feed their young ones with caterpillars thirty-six times in an hour; redstarts twenty-three times an hour, with green grubs picked from gooseberry trees; and chaffinches thirty-five times an hour with caterpillars. In no other way could a garden be so effectually and rapidly cleared of the insects which infest plants.
PLUMAGE OF BIRDS OILY. PLUCKING OF GEESE.
supply him with feathers In their natural state, the feathers of birds resist rain and moisture; if every shower of rain soaked into their plumage, their weight would be increased and their feathers would lose their elasticity. In this helpless state they could not fly. Birds are provided with oil, with which they dress their feathers, so that the rain runs off instead of sinking in; but this is not the case with feathers after they have left the bird, they then lose their power of resisting moisture.
In some parts of England large flocks of geese are kept mainly for the value of their feathers, and the season of geese-plucking comes round se regularly as that of sheep-shearing. The practice is cruel, for the poor birds suffer much in thus losing their downy covering they pine afterwards for a considerable time, and lose their flesh and their appetite. It is said that the feathers, quills, and down taken from geese yield more profit than the rearing of these birds for the market, and at the birds are deprived of one part of their covering or another several times in a year. - Stanley on Birds.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 69.
Services from servo, servare, to assist, benefit, labour for.
Rid from hriddan (A.S.), to set free; to put away, to disencumber.
noxious from noxius, destructive, deduced from noceo, nocere, to hurt; that which is hurtful or injurious.
Game - from gamian (A.S.), to make sport; the wild animals make sport for sportsmen.
Pigeon the pigeon breeds so fast that a single pair may at the end of four years be the progenitors of 14,762 descendants.
Down the eider-duck produces a large quantity of down. Its haunts are the coasts of Norway, Lapland, and Iceland. The down is plucked by the female from her breast and spread over the eggs. The fowlers carry off both eggs and down. The duck lays again, and her nest is again despoiled. She lays a third time, the male supplying the down, and she is then a]lowed to rear her young.
Beds from beddian (A.S.), to strew; beds in early times being made of straw or leaves strewed on the ground; perhaps from bed (Heb.), linen.
Quills ciule (Irish), from calamus, a reed, a pen; reeds were formerly used for pens. Steel pens are now superseding quills.
Head-dress alike the graceful ornament of the savage and of the lady of fashion.
Field-mouse also called the harvest-mouse, the smallest and one of the prettiest quadrupeds of Great Britain; it never enters houses, but is carried with the sheaves of corn into the barns and ricks, where it multiplies very fast. It builds its nest among the straws of standing corn or on the stems of thistles.
Larvae from larva, a mask; the caterpillar state of insects.
injurious from in, not, and jus, juris, right, law, justice; doing injury or mischief.
Infest from in, not, and festo, festare, to rejoice; to annoy, molest, or injure.
QUESTIONS 69.
Are birds serviceable to man?
In what respects?
What birds serve for food?
Besides poultry and game, what other birds are used for food?
How many eggs will a good hen supply in a year?
How do birds also contribute to the comfort of mankind?
What are the qualities which give feathers their value?
What bird supplies the largest quantity of down?
How is she deprived of it?
What other benefits do we derive from feathers?
Are feathers used as ornaments?
What birds rid the farmer of field-mice?
Give me some particulars of this little quadruped.
Is the vulture serviceable and how?
What service does the stork render?
For what reason may the rook be regarded as the farmers friend?
When are birds not at all injurious?
How often have sparrows been observed to feed their young on caterpillars in autumn?
Redstarts, how often?
Chaffinches, how often?
What do these facts teach us?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What valuable provision have feathers in their natural state?
What would be the evil of their admitting moisture?
Why should birds be able to bear the changes of the atmosphere?
What provision enables birds to keep their feathers waterproof?
When do feathers lose their power of resisting moisture?
For what purpose are geese kept in some parts of England?
Why is this practice a cruel one?
Why is it continued?
Can you give me other instances in which animals are tortured for the profit they afford?
Is it better to kill an animal at once or to put it to death by slow degrees?
Feathers from living geese are considered more elastic than those from dead ones What small sacrifice of luxury would put a stop to the practice of plucking live geese?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
SECTION IX. OF REPTILES AND FISHES.
There are four principal orders of reptiles. The tortoises, the lizards, the serpents, and the frogs. They are all vertebrated animals, and are cold to the touch; the circulation of the blood is slower in these animals than in the mammalia and birds; and the blood is of a paler colour. Reptiles are generally oviparous.
Tortoises and turtles have a hard shelly covering. The land tortoise feeds on vegetables, worms, and slugs; it passes the winter in a torpid state. Turtles are sea tortoises.
There is a great variety of lizards; the crocodile and the alligator are the largest. Nearly related to the lizards were the gigantic ichthyosaurus and plesiosaurus of the ancient world. The chameleon, celebrated for its changing colours, also belongs to the lizards, and the iguana, and there are many smaller kinds.
Serpents have long, slender, flexible bodies without limbs, fins, or wings. All have very great extensibility of the jaws and throat. The several kinds of rattle-snakes have all poisonous fangs. The boa constrictor has no fangs, but it has great strength, and can stop the respiration of an ox by coiling its lithe and muscular body round it. It has 350 vertebrae. Other snakes are the adder, or viper the only poisonous snake in Britain; the harmless blind-worm; and the hooded-snake of the East Indies one of the most venomous of reptiles.
The frogs and toads are all harmless. They are remarkable for their power of absorbing moisture through the body, and never drinking water by the mouth. Their eggs become tadpoles, and the tadpoles are transformed into frogs. It is a vulgar error that toads spit venom.
TEMPERATURE OF REPTILES. ACTIVE POWER OF SERPENTS.
Reptiles To creep is their distinguishing characteristic; some swim, some leap and run, some have four short limbs, which just lift their bodies above the ground.
cold to the touch The temperature of the blood in man is about 96 degrees, in serpents it is not higher than 80 degrees.
Crocodiles The moat formidable animal of the lizard tribe. The crocodile is peculiar to Africa, the alligator to America, and the gavial to Asia. Living on the banks of tropical rivers, which daily roll down the bloated carcases of other animals, the tribe of crocodiles feed on the carrion which would otherwise cause pestilence.
Serpents Here limbs are dispensed with, but no animal is more highly gifted with locomotive powers. It makes its way with the greatest rapidity over the
Surface of the earth; it undulates through the water without the aid of fins, paddles, or flippers; it ascends trees with activity in pursuit of birds; it coils itself round creatures much larger than itself, and by pressure, makes respiration impossible; it is endowed with a pair of extensible jaws, which widen as they open, into which it draws its victim. Professor Rymer Jones.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 70.
reptiles from repo, reptum, to creep; hence reptilis, any creeping thing.
tortoisesfrom tortus , wreathed, twisted; they have four legs, and are enveloped in two bony bucklers.
Lizard from lacertus, an arm, properly that part of the arm from the elbow to the wrist; applied to a lizard, because of the similarity of its legs to the part of the arm called lacertus.
Serpent from serpens, creeping; their habit.
torpid from torpeo, torpere, torpui; to be sluggish or benumbed.
Crocodile from krokos (Gr.), saffron, and deilos (Gr.), fearful, because the crocodile is said to be afraid of saffron; some derive it from kroke (Gr.), the shore, and deilos, fearful, because it is afraid of the shore. This animal is only dangerous in the water; on land it is slow-paced and timid.
Alligator from el lagarto (Span.), the lizard. The Orinoco so abounds with alligators that it was called the river of lagartos by its early voyagers; alligators are only found in America.
Icthyosaurus from ichthus (Gr.), a fish, and sauros (Gr.), a lizard; a fish- lizard: it had enormous eyes, a large head, long jaws, and conical teeth, and four strong paddles; some of them were thirty feet long.
Plesiosaurus from plesios (Gr.), near to, similar, and sauros, a lizard; lizard-like: it had a small head, a serpent-like neck (which it could arch like a swan), a short tail, and four long paddles.
ancient world it is supposed that a world of animals and plants exited prior to that formed for the abode of man, the successive creations of which are recorded by Moses.
poison from potio, a drink; poisons were usually administered in drinks or deadly potions.
Viper from vivus, alive, and pario, to bring forth; so called because it is supposed to be the only serpent that brings forth its young alive, the rest being oviparous, that is, bringing forth eggs, from ovum, egg, and pario, to bring forth.
hooded-snake the cobra-di-capello; it has marks on its disk like a pair of spectacles; when irritated it has the power of expanding the neck into a kind of hood.
Tadpoles from tad (A.S.), a toad, and pola (A.S.), a young one; the young of the frog and toad.
QUESTIONs 70.
What is the meaning of reptile?
How many orders of reptiles are there?
Name two of their peculiarities.
How are they otherwise distinguished?
What is the meaning of oviparous?
Have any reptiles a hard covering?
On what does the land tortoise feed?
How does it pass the winter?
What are turtles? Are lizards numerous?
Name the largest species of lizards.
What are the names of the two great fossil lizards?
To what class does the chameleon belong?
How is it celebrated?
What are the characteristics of serpents?
Of what members are they destitute?
Mention some snakes that have poisonous fangs.
What destructive powers does the boa-constrictor possess?
How is its strength proved?
How many vertebrae has it?
What is the hooded snake also called?
Give a short account of it.
For what are frogs and toads remarkable?
What do their eggs become?
Does the toad spit venom?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is the distinguishing character of reptiles?
What kinds swim? What kinds leap? What kinds of reptiles have four short limbs? What kinds have no limbs?
How much lower is the temperature of their blood than that of man?
Where are the different kinds of the crocodile tribe found?
What services do they render in those parts?
How does the serpent show its great locomotive powers?
By what means does it destroy animals larger than itself?
Which of the serpent tribe has its name from this mode of constricting or pressing its victim?
What is the effect of such pressure?
How are the jaws of the serpent tribe peculiar?
SECTION IX. OF REPTILES AND FISHES.
Lesson 71. Peculiarities of Reptiles.
Only one kind of turtle, called the green turtle, affords good food; it is a gentle and harmless animal, so large that it sometimes weighs five hundred pounds; it abounds in the islands of the East and West Indies, and is esteemed for its delicious taste and its green fat. It feeds chiefly on a sea-weed, called turtle-grass. The hawks-bill turtle produces the shell called tortoise-shell, which is used for combs, snuff-boxes, tea-caddies, &c.
The crocodile, which is a native of Africa, is a voracious reptile; it is sometimes six yards long; it has an enormous mouth with terrific teeth; its body is nearly covered with hard scales, but it cannot run so fast as to overtake a man. Both crocodiles and their eggs are eaten by the negroes. The alligator is the crocodile of America. The iguana is a gentle reptile, somewhat resembling a crocodile in shape; its flesh, either boiled or roasted, is excellent. It is eaten by the inhabitants of the Bahama Isles, and at Panama. It lives in the trees, feeds on vegetables, and robs birds nests. The chameleon has the power of assuming different colours.
There are above 200 kinds of serpents, about forty of them are poisonous. All the species change their skins annually, and like other reptiles they become torpid in winter in cold climates. Some serpents live among trees, some inhabit fresh waters, others the seas of hot climates, but a very large proportion of them are inhabitants of the land. Many uncivilized nations eat serpents.
There are about a hundred species of frogs, several kinds are used for food; one kind called the edible frog, found in Italy, France, and Germany, is considered a great delicacy; it is like the common frog, but larger. The bullfrog, which is also eaten, makes a croaking sound like the lowing of cattle.
CRUELTY PRACTISED TO PROCURE TORTOISE-SHELL. THE CHAMELEON.
the hawks-bill turtle The shell is procured by covering the living turtle with burning charcoal, which causes the outer shell to curl upwards; it is then forced off with a knife, and before it becomes cold, it is flattened between two boards. The animal is then suffered to return to the water, where a new shell, but a very thin one, is formed, but the animal never thrives.
the chameleon Admirably adapted, by the formation of its feet, for climbing up trees and holding there securely; the chameleon does not change its colour to red, blue, green, or white, as is erroneously imagined, but it assumes every tint of brown or olive that the bough or bark of the tree has on which it rests, looking like a part of the tree itself; it is thus scarcely perceptible, even to the human eye. The chameleon takes its insect prey thus; it first protrudes its tongue, but very slowly, for about half an inch, and then launches it forth at the insect with the rapidity of lightning, and never misses it. The tongue is six or seven inches long as long as all the rest of its body.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 71.
Tortoise testudo, a tortoise; land tortoise are herbivorous; there are also
fresh-water and river tortoises, and the marine tortoises, or turtles.
green-turtle they are taken by torch-light, the method being to turn them
on their backs; they are then helpless.
sea-weed - the water tortoises also feed on fishes, mollusks, and insects,
tortoise-shell that from the Pacific Ocean is much more valuable than that from the Atlantic.
Crocodile that of the Nile was one of the innumerable idols of the ancient
Egyptians.
Alligator called also the cayman; there is a species in India called the gavial.
Iguana - it has a singular crest along its back, and a hanging pouch under
the chin, which it has the power of inflating with air.
Bahama Isles a chain of low islands stretching from the North side of St.
Domingo to the coast of East Florida; they belong to Britain.
Panama - the neck of land which unites North and South America; the narrowest part of this isthmus is about 20 miles wide.
Chameleon the extraordinary power of changing its colour is supposed to arise from two layers of membranous pigment, which may be both visible at the same time, or one of which may predominate; a similar mechanism exists in the cuttlefish.
Skins the new skin is completely formed and hardened under the old one, which
splits near the head, and the animal passes through it.
edible-frog also called the green frog, the largest species of European frog;
the hind quarters are esteemed the best eating.
Bull-frog its name is from the sound it makes; it is an American frog, and is from six to eight inches long.
QUESTIONS 71.
How many kinds of turtle are fit for food?
Is it a dangerous animal?
What weight does it sometimes attain to?
How are the green turtles taken?
Where is this animal found abundantly?
What is it esteemed for?
On what does the turtle feed?
From what animal is tortoise-shell obtained?
For what is this substance used?
Of what country is the crocodile a native?
Describe this voracious animal.
What is the name of the American crocodile?
Is the iguana eaten?
Where is it found?
What are its habits of life?
About how many serpents are known?
What number of them are poisonous?
Do they cast their skins?
When do they become torpid?
What sort of blood (hot or cold) have reptiles?
In what very different localities do serpents live?
How many species of frogs are known?
Are any of them eaten as human food?
Which of them is esteemed a great delicacy?
What is there peculiar in the bull-frog?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
By what cruel practice is the shell of the turtle obtained?
For what purpose is tortoise-shell required?
Could it be dispensed with for these articles?
Where does the chameleon find its prey?
What error is prevalent with regard to the chameleon?
That colours does it actually assume?
How is it concealed from observation?
How does it at first proceed to take its prey?
What follows this preparation?
What is said of its unerring accuracy?
What is there remarkable in the tongue of this animal?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Fishes are formed to live in water; instead of legs or arms they have fins to balance their bodies; and the movements of the body and the tail from side to side propel them along. The tail acts like an oar, and the fins like rudders in the water. Fishes have no lungs, but gills through which they breathe; the blood is purified by the air contained in the water which passes through their gills. Most fishes have an air-bladder which they can dilate or contract, by means of which they can ascend or descend in the water. Fishes are generally covered with scales, which are arranged like slates on the roof of a house. Their bodies are also covered with slime, through which the water cannot penetrate.
The chief kinds of fishes include those of the perch tribe, the gurnard tribe, among which is the flying-fish; the mackerel tribe, among which is the swordfish; the carp, the pike, the salmon, and the trout tribes; the herring and pilchard; the cod tribe, among which are the ling, the haddock, and the whiting; the flounder tribe, in which are the turbot, the sole, the halibut, and all flat fish; eels, sturgeons, and sharks.
Many kinds of fishes are gregarious; most of those which are caught for food are found in shoals.
The increase of fishes is very great, a single fish sometimes contains many thousands of eggs, called spawn, which it deposits in sand, gravel, or sea-weed, and which is hatched by the heat of the sun. Fishes are very destructive to each other; all are carnivorous. They are in continual motion, and their whole life is spent either in devouring other fishes, or in saving themselves from being devoured. A few fishes with small mouths feed on worms, insects, and on the spawn of other fishes.
WHAT FISHES DO NOT WANT. WHAT THEY HAVE.
formed to live in water A covering of wool, fur, hair, or feathers would be unsuitable for a perpetual life in the watery element, smootb, hard scales are the best adaptation that can be conceived of for covering the bodies of fishes. They have no occasion for hands to seize with, nor for legs to support their weight, for they have organs of locomotion, which, together with their air-bladders, give them all the moans they require for procuring their subsistence. Fishes do not require fine organs of taste, for the water which they require for respiration is continually washing their mouth; they seize their victim in the water with their jaws, swallow it entire, or cut it with their teeth. Fishes have nothing to do with odours, for the water cannot conduct the odours of the air to them, their smell is consequently imperfect. Hearing is almost useless to a fish, for sounds cannot penetrate the depths of the ocean, though they feel vibrations or concussions near them. Acuteness of vision, to see their prey within a limited range, they possess, and they require no more. Fishes have none of the pleasures of parental affection.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 72.
Water water being nearly the specific gravity of fishes, they have no weight to bear.
Fins none of them, except the caudal (the tail), assist them in progressive
motion.
Propel from pro, forward, and pello, to drive; the tail strikes right and left
against the water.
Gills probably from gula, the throat.
Slime from slim (A.S.), an adhesive, viscous substance.
Perch - common in all temperate parts of Europe.
Gurnard fishes with hard cheeks, the head appears as if mailed or armed.
flying-fish in this fish the pectoral fins are very large, and look like wings.
Mackerel the common mackerel is remarkable for the rapidity with which death and putrefaction succeed its removal from the water.
Swordfish rapid in its motions, and distinguished by a long and sharp-pointed beak, like a spit or sword.
Carp to this family the gold and silver fishes belong. The carp is so tenacious of life, that it may be kept in wet moss in a cool place, for three
weeks or a month. From the silvery looking scales of this family artificial pearls are made for necklaces.
Pike a voracious family, and considered the longest lived, and likely to attain greatest size, of any fresh-water fish.
Salmon the salmon ascends rivers to deposit its spawn.
Cod the cod, haddock, whiting, and ling fisheries on our coasts furnish
abundant supplies of nutritious food.
Turbot the most esteemed of the marine fishes.
Sole this fish is in season nearly all the year round. It keeps near the bottom of the sea; hence, perhaps, its name.
Halibut sometimes attains the weight of 300 or 400 lbs.
Sturgeon the surface of the skin is more or less covered with bony plates.
QUESTIONS 72.
There do fishes live?
What means are given them to balance their bodies?
How do they urge themselves forward?
Office does the tail perform?
What organs have they instead of lungs?
How is the blood purified?
What provision have most fishes to enable them to ascend and descend in the water?
What covering have fishes generally?
How is the water prevented from penetrating through their skins?
Enumerate some of the principal kinds of fish.
Are all kinds solitary?
What do you mean by shoals?
Do fishes breed rapidly?
What are the eggs of fishes called?
Where is the spawn generally deposited?
By what means are the eggs hatched?
On what do fishes live?
How is their life spent?
On what do fishes with small mouths feed?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What kind of covering have fishes?
Why would wool or feathers be unsuitable?
Why have fishes no occasion for legs?
By what means do they move about?
What is the use of their air-bladder?
Why do not fishes require fine organs of taste?
What substance requisite for their respiration is contained in water?
Why do not fishes require keen organs of smell?
Why is hearing almost useless to them?
What sense do they require in perfection?
Many animals rear their young fishes have no such duties, how is this?
SECTION IX. OF REPTILES AND FISHES.
Lesson 73. Uses of Fishes as Food.
The chief salt-water fish which are used for human food are the cod, the haddock, the sprat, the herring, the mackerel, the turbot, the sole, the flounder, and the skate. Many other kinds are also used, but in less numbers. Of fresh water fish those most esteemed are the salmon, the trout, the perch, the eel, and the pike.
The herring is caught in such immense numbers, that millions of people feed daily on it, yet the supply never ceases. Thousands of people are employed in taking, salting, pickling, or smoking herrings. Many thousands of barrels, which are caught on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, are cured yearly, and the Dutch are more extensively engaged in this fishery than ourselves. The herring dwells constantly in our seas; it comes near the coast to deposit its spawn, and for greater warmth to its young; but it afterwards leaves the shore for the deeper water. The cod-fisheries also find employment for many people, and afford a constant supply of food, fresh or salted. The chief cod-fisheries are on the banks of Newfoundland and Labrador, far out of sight of land; those of Britain are on the north-eastern coast.
Shell-fish are either crustaceous, as the lobster, the crayfish, the crab, the prawn, and the shrimp; or testaceous, as the oyster, the cockle, and the mussel. The crustacea are covered with a thin shell like a coat of armour, they annually change their shell, and they have the power of reproducing a limb, if one be lost by accident or in battle. The testacea live in a hard calcareous shell. It is said that 80,000 lobsters are sent annually to the London markets from Montrose; they are probably obtained from the coasts of Norway.
THE CHIEF FISHERIES OF GREAT BRITAIN.
used for human food This is the principal use of fishes to man, though they have many other uses in the economy of nature. There are on our own coasts, and at distant places localities which are frequented at certain seasons by vast numbers of fish; these localities are fisheries. The coast-line of Great Britain is not less than 3,000 miles, and that of Ireland is 1,000 miles. Many of the people on these coasts are engaged in fisheries. The principal cod fisheries are on the banks of Newfoundland, and the settlers and traders there are all engaged in this important trade. Our principal salmon fisheries are carried on in the rivers and estuaries of Scotland and Ireland. The herring fishery commences on the coast of Sutherland in June, and terminates in September; it commences at Yarmouth in September. The pilchard fishery is confined to the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, these coasts being the principal haunt of the species. Whale-fishing was formerly carried on near Greenland, and in Daviss Straits, but recently whales have been more sought for near the shores of Australia and New Zealand.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 73.
Cod very voracious, and easily takes the bait, therefore easily caught.
Herrings from hoering (A.S.), deduced from haer (Ger.), an army, to express their numbers. The herring fisheries are off the Scottish coasts, and the pilchard fisheries off Cornwall.
Great Britain when the Scottish parliament was incorporated with the English, the title Great Britain was assumed. This was in the year 1706.
Ireland formerly called Hibernia; its legislative union with England took place in 1801.
Dutch inhabitants of Holland, a maritime province of the kingdom of the Netherlands.
Cod fisheries off the eastern coasts of England, and for about 450 miles in length off the coast of Newfoundland.
Labrador first sighted by Cabot, in the year 1497; re-discovered by Hudson, in 1610; a desolate and sterile country.
Crustaceous from crustatus, crusted, or inlaid.
Crayfish they live to the age of twenty years, if not destroyed by other animals.
Testaceous from testa, a shell.
Oyster from ostreon (Gr.), akin to osteon (Gr.), a bone, and oatrakon (Gr.), a shell. It is fished for, and then reared in artificial beds called oyster banks. Some of these banks are several miles in extent. Oysters are out of season from May till September. The fecundity of the oyster is very great.
Calcareous from calx, chalky.
Mussel dangerous if eaten in excess. Mussels sometimes acquire poisonous qualities, but how is unknown.
Norway a country in the north of Europe; its forests and fisheries are noted; game is abundant, and there are no game laws. It was united to the crown of Sweden in 1814.
QUESTIONS 73.
What salt-water fishes are used for food?
Name some of the most esteemed among fresh-water fishes.
What fish is taken for food in very large numbers?
Is there any visible diminution in its numbers?
Does the herring fishery employ many people?
How are they severally employed?
Where are herrings caught?
Where is the pilchard fishery?
What other fishery gives employment to many people?
Where is the principal cod fishery?
By what names are shellfish distinguished?
What does crustaceous mean?
Name some examples of the crustacea.
What do you mean by testaceous?
Give examples of testacea.
What do you know about the oyster?
What singular power of reproduction have the cruatacea?
How many lobsters are sent from Montrose to London annually?
Whence are they obtained?
Where is Norway?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is the principal use of fishes to man?
Fishes have many other uses mention a few of them.
What are the localities called which are much frequented by fish?
What is the length of the coast-line of Britain?
What is that of Ireland?
In what business are the settlers and traders of Newfoundland chiefly engaged?
Where is Newfoundland?
Where are our principal salmon-fisheries carried on?
Mention some of these estuaries.
When does herring-fishing commence on the coast of Sutherland?
When does it terminate there?
Where does it then commence?
Where is the pilchard fishery carried on?
What fishery was formerly carried on in Davis Straits?
Where are whales chiefly sought for now?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
SECTION X. OF INSECTS AND WORMS.
Insects are to be met with in all parts of the earth. The air, the land, and the water abound with them. Other animals are numerous and diversified in their form, motion, colour, clothing, and modes of life, but none are so numerous or so diversified as insects. Other animals are covered with hair, fur, feathers, down, wool, slime, scales, armour, in insects all these coverings are to be found. In their structure there are three divisions the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The head is generally furnished with antennae. Nearly all perfect insects have six legs; spiders, mites, and scorpions have eight; they are not insects, but arachnidae.
Insects are classed according to the shape, or the substance of their covering or wings; the beetles, of which there are many varieties, are sheath-winged; their wing-cases, or elytra, are of a horny consistence. The locusts and some others are half-winqed, or rather half their wings are horny and the other half membraneous. The grass-hopper, cockroach, earwig, and cricket belong to this order of insects. The butterflies and moths are scale-winged; they have four wings, covered with fine scales. The dragonflies are nerve-winged; they have four wings, the net-work of which is strengthened by nervures; in this division are the may-flies and white ants.
The bees are membrane-winged; they have four wings, not so much like net-work as the preceding insects, and they are armed with a sting; the wasps and gall-flies are similarly formed. The flies are two-winged insects, and each wing has a balancer; the gnat and gad-fly are also two-winged.
DIVERSIFIED CONSTRUCTION OF INSECTS.
Insects are not vertebrated, they are articulated, or jointed. They breathe through pores, which are generally placed on the sides of the body, and which communicate with tubes extending through every part. Their antennae, or feelers, are doubtless organs of touch; by many they are also supposed to be organs of hearing. Many insects have compound eyes, that is, their eyes are composed of a large number of lenses, the office of each lens being that of a distinct eye. Each eye of the ant has 50 lenses of the house-fly, 4,000 of the dragon-fly, 12,000, and some have many more than these. The construction of insects is as diversified as their modes of life; the gnawing beetles, such as cock-chafers, cock-roaches, and locusts, have hard moveable jaws; others, as the butterfly, have a tubular proboscis, which coils round itself like the spring of a watch, but which can be instantaneously uncoiled and inserted into the nectary of a flower to pump up the drop of honey within; others have more fearful suckers and sanguinary appetites, as the gnat and the flea.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 74.
Insects insectus, dividcd; because the body is divided into three portions, and they have articulated legs.
Head the head in general bears a larger proportion to the body than in other animals.
Thorax from thorax (Gr.), the breast, or region of the heart, deduced from thoro (Gr.), to leap or jump, because the heart leaps therein; the second division of the body.
Abdomen the belly; the term is applied in insects to the third division of the body.
Antennae from antenna, a sail-yard, deduced from ante, before, and teneo, to hold, because it holds the sail before the mast; applied by zoologists to the horn-like members on the heads of insects.
sheath-winged "coleoptera," from koleos (Gr.), a scabbard or sheath, and pteron (Gr.), a wing.
Elytra from elutron (Gr.), husk, case.
Half-winged "hemiptera," from hemisus (Gr.), half, and pteron (Gr.), a wing.
Membraneous from membrana, a thin skin.
Earwig "forflcula," a forfex, or pair of scissors, which this insect possesses, and with which it can give a sharp twinge. It is not authenticated that earwigs creep into the ears of persons who are asleep. Poultry are very fond of these insects.
Butterflies diurna, or day flies.
Moths nocturna, or night flies.
Scale-winged - lepidoptera, from lepis, lepidos (Gr.), a scale, and pteron, a wing.
dragon-flies libellula; they have large compound eyes and powerful jaws, strong wings, and rapid flight; they fly with extended jaws, and swallow immense numbers of insects in their flight.
The fierce libellula, with jaws of steel,
Devours an insect province at a meal.
nerve-winged - neuroptera, from neuron (Gr.), a nerve, and pteron, a wing.
May-flies ephemera, from epi (Gr.), for, and hermera, a day, existing for a day.
white-ants celebrated for their immense nests in tropical countries, and for their destructiveness.
Membrane-winged hymenoptera, from humein (Gr.),a skin, and pteron, a wing.
two-winged diptera from duo (Gr.), two, and pteron, a wing.
QUESTIONSS 74.
Where are insects found?
What is the meaning of insect?
Are insects numerous?
What different kinds of covering have they?
What are the three chief divisions of structure in the body of insects?
With what organs is the head furnished?
How many legs have perfect insects?
Are scorpions and spiders insects?
By what general feature are insects classed?
Give an example of the sheath-winged.
What are their wing-cases called?
What insects are called half-winged?
Describe these wings.
Give examples of such insects.
What insects are scale-winged?
Describe their wings.
What insects are nerve-winged?
Describe the formation of their wings.
What insects are membrane-winged?
Describe the peculiarities of these insects.
What insects are two-winged?
What peculiarity baa their structure?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Are insects vertebrated or articulated animals?
What do you mean by articulated?
Through what do they breathe?
Which are their organs of touch?
What organs are they also supposed to be?
What is there curious in the eyes of insects?
Tell me what number of lenses have been discovered in the eyes of certain insects.
How are the gnawing insects provided for their mode of life?
What is the use of the proboscis to a butterfly?
When you draw up water from a cup through a straw, you are pumping; you first draw the air out of the straw, and then the water ascends; many of the sucking insects thus make a vacuum with their suckers; by a vacuum of this kind in its feet, the house-fly is able to walk on the ceiling.
A Stanhope lens which costs little, is the best magnifier for a school, with it the down of the butterfly, the wings of the fly, the lenses of insects' eyes, &c. &c. may be seen very largely magnified.
SECTION X. Of INSECTS AND WORMS.
Lesson 75. Changes and Labours of Insects.
The transformations which insects undergo are exceedingly wonderful; their different states are the egg, the larva, the pupa or chrysalis, and the perfect insect. Complete changes of form, food, and habits take place during the life of every insect. The eggs are laid near the substance that is to be the food of the future grub on plants, in dung, in animals, in water. The eggs are hatched, the grubs feed and grow; as they grow they change their skin from time to time; when they are fully grown they eat no more, but prepare for another change; some cover themselves with a silky cocoon, others in a hard covering, others bury themselves in the earth, others suspend themselves to walls, trees, or plants; and thus they continue, till at length they come forth perfect insects, for in the previous states they were imperfect. In their perfect state they seem to feel the highest enjoyment, they lay their eggs for another generation, and soon after they die.
The labours of insects are very great, and with many of them it is evident that labour is a pleasure. Bees collect honey, and make hexagonal cells of wax; two carrion beetles will bury an animal a hundred times larger than their own bodies in a few hours; the nut-weevil pierces nut after nut, to deposit its eggs; the silk-worm spins a thread a thousand feet long in one unbroken double line; the gnat makes a raft for her eggs; the caddis-worm a boat of straws, stones, sand, shells, leaves, or reeds, in which to float its own body; and the white ants erect habitations with various apartments, staircases, arches, domes, and tunnels, all of exquisite workmanship.
INSECT STATES OF EXISTENCE.
Complete changes during the life of every insect In reality, insects have several distinct states of existence successive worlds, with new endowments adapted to each state. At one time, an insect may be an active inhabitant of the water, In anther state, of the earth, and its third world may be the air; and for each manner of life it has a new form with new organs. The gnat lives on the wing, in the air; its larvae are aquatic, the eggs are laid by the perfect insect, but not in the water, for if they were to be submerged their vitality would be destroyed; the gnat therefore, constructs a raft to keep them afloat on the water, and when they have hatched they readily enter the water, and remain there during their larvae state.
The larvae change their skins as they increase in size, each new coat being, as it develops, larger than that cast off; in this state they have powerful jaws, but in their adult form they have only a proboscis. In passing through the various stages, from the egg to the perfect insect, some of the two-winged flies are only a few days, while some others such as the cock-chafer and the stag-beetle, are several years.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 75.
Larva a mask; grubs, maggots, and caterpillars are larvae. Caterpillars change their skin several times during the larva state.
Pupa the state of youth.
Chrysalis from chrusos(Gr.), gold; the first changes of the larva,, so called from the golden tinge of the chrysalis. It is sometimes called the aurelian state, from the Latin aurum, gold, for the same reason.
Cocoon from cocon (Fr.), a pod or ball.
Hard covering as the caterpillar of the puss-moth and others.
Bury themselves as the caterpillars of the hawk-moths or sphinxes.
Suspend themselves as those of the white butterflies.
Labours Kirby enumerates among their other labours the invention of mortar, by bees and white ants; the making of houses with various apartments, staircases, arches, domes, colonnades, and even tunnels, cells hung with tapestry, silken carpets, and the formation of both paper and pasteboard.
Bees every colony consists of a queen bee, the working bees, and drones. Bees are geometricians; their cells are so constructed as, with the least quantity of material, to have the largest sized spaces, and the least possible loss of interstice.
Honey the working bees collect all the honey; the drones, or males, take no part in this labour. The nectar of flowers is collected with the tongue, and at once deposited in the honey-bag.
Hexagonal - six-sided, from hex (Gr.), six, and gonia (Gr.), an angle; to these cells the honey is consigned; the cells are formed of wax.
Nut-weevil the egg is deposited in the nut while it is yet soft and tender; the grub completes its growth in the nut, and then eats its way out, buries itself in the earth, and in time changes to a perfect beetle.
silk-worms a species of the mulberry tree is the plant it prefers to feed upon.
Gnat the larva state is passed in stagnant water.
caddis-worm the fly is a favourite bait with anglers.
white ants or termites; next to locusts the most destructive of insects. They are chiefly confined to the tropics, and are abundant in Western Africa.
QUESTIONS 75.
What are the different states of insects called?
What are these successive states?
What is meant by the larva state?
How are insects, then, under a mask?
What is meant by the pupa state?
What by the chrysalis state?
What by the perfect state?
Where are the eggs of insects laid?
What change takes place in the larva, at different times?
When do they cease eating?
What change then takes place?
Is this kind of change alike in all insects?
What difference exists?
When do they feel the highest enjoyment?
What do they do in this state?
Are insects industrious?
Is their industry a drudgery to them or a pleasure?
Exemplify the labours of bees, that of the carrion beetle, that of the nut-weevil, that of the silkworm, that of the gnat, that of the caddis-worm.
Describe some of the works of the white ant.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Here is a fly what was its previous state of existence?
And what was its condition before it was a maggot?
What was the white butterfly before it flew?
And what was its stage before it was a chrysalis?
Did it come into the world as a living caterpillar?
What was it before it was a caterpillar?
Where was its life spent as a caterpillar?
As it grew bigger by feeding, what changes in its skin took place?
What was there remarkable in these changes?
In its perfect state it inhabits the air, what new organs has it for this state of being?
You would not think on looking at a caterpillar feeding that it could ever mount in the air and fly, or that a slender tube should supply the place of its jaws; but if you observe the habits of insects you will perceive many wonders as great as these. By feeding a few caterpillars in boxes, on the plants they eat, you may observe their changes.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
The uses of insects are in many cases direct; in others in direct. The bee provides honey and wax for mans use; the silkworm produces the most costly substance used for dress; a beetle called the Spanish fly is used for blisters; another insect produces lac, of which sealing-wax is made; another is the cochineal insect, which is used to produce the various crimson and scarlet dyes. Many birds, fishes, and quadruped derive their food from insects. Among quadrupeds, the hedgehog and the mole eat various kinds of insects; the badger eats beetles, and bears are fond of ants; the armadillo feeds on a kind of locust, and the ant-eater on ants and wood-lice. Insects fertilize flowers, and cause varieties by conveying from one blossom to another the pollen which perfects the seed. Insects also produce the gall-nut from which ink is made.
The indirect benefits of insects are also important; some devour the putrid excrements of animals, others feast on dead carcases, and thus prevent the air from being infected with offensive odours. One female flesh-fly will give being to 20,000 grubs. It is said that the grubs produced by three of these flies will devour a dead horse as quickly as a lion could. The ichneumon-fly destroys the voracious larva of other insects, in the bodies of which it deposits its eggs; the ladybird feeds on the plant-louse.
The colours of insects assist in their concealment many of them, even to their foes, look like parts of the substances on which they feed. Some insects are clothed in armour of bright metallic lustre, others have the dazzling brightness of precious stones; the wings of some have on them plates of gold and silver, others seem pencilled over with these metals; some resemble the withered moss, others the fresh green leaves of trees; some kinds are veined like beautiful marbles, in others the clouds have their imitations. Angles, triangles, squares, and circles, diversify the wings of some species, in others letters, and even dates appear.
VALUE OF THE SILKWORM. THE BEE. THE COCHINEAL INSECT, ETC.
the silkworm lf this insect were to be exterminated, many thousand8 of hands now profitably employed in the rearing of the worms, collecting them, spinning, weaving, and dyeing silk would be thrown out of the means of subsistence.
the bee if bees were put out of existence, we should at once lose honey, an article of importance to us, but of much greater use and value in some other countries, and wax, which is applied to so many domestic and manufacturing purposes.
the cochineal insect This insect is a native of Mexico, where a species of cactus called the Indian fig, is cultivated, for the express purpose of rearing it; the male insect is winged, the female wingless. It is rich in the finest red colouring matter, and has long been employed for making scarlet and crimson lakes, and for dyeing scarlet. About 2,000,000 lbs. are imported annually into Great Britain, and each pound weight contains 70,000 insects.
Concealment Many caterpillars are of the same shade of colour as the leaf on which they feed; some look like spines of the shrub to which they are attached.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 76.
Spanish fly these insects are called cantharidae, from cantharos (Gr.); an elegant green beetle.
blisters bladders or vesicles raised in the skin by an external irritant.
Lac i.e., milk; the lac flows from certain trees when punctured by the insect for the purpose of depositing its egg.
cochineal the dyes which this insect enables us to produce are of great importance to this country, £250,000 being paid annually for cochineal.
Pollen i.e., fine flour or dust.
Gall-nut the extinction of gall flies would deprive us of one of the best materials for making ink; they are also used in dyeing and in medicine.
Benefits of insects not one insect could be exterminated without injury to mankind; if bees were extinct we should lose honey and wax; if silkworms, 1,500,000 human beings would be thrown out of employment; while many useful animals would also become extinct if the insects they feed on were for ever lost.
Armour the beetles generally are clad in mail.
lustre (Fr.), from lustrum (Lat.), brightness, splendour.
metallic lustre several kinds of beetles, moths, and butterflies, especially the weevils, the silver-washed fritillary, and the copper butterflies.
precious stones especially the diamond beetle and the emerald moth.
plates of gold several of the butterflies and moths, especially the fritillary butterflies and the gold-spot moth.
fresh green leaves if the wings of some of the locusts, ,mantes, and phasmae were to be detached from the insects, they would be at first taken for real leaves.
marbles the marbled white butterfly, and several other kinds of butterflies and moths.
angles in the angle-shade moth, and many others.
dates the date 1536 appears on the anterior underwing of the dark green fritillary; several others also exhibit dates.
Letters a white c appears on one butterfly; the Greek gamma (y), or gold y, on a common moth.
QUESTIONS 76.
Are insects useful to man?
How are bees beneficial?
What does the silkworm produce?
What beetle is used for blisters?
For what is lac used?
How is it obtained?
For what dyes are we indebted to the cochineal insect?
What sum of money does this country pay annually for cochineal?
Are insects devoured by other animals?
Give a few examples.
How do insects fertilize flowers?
What important material do we obtain by means of gall flies?
The above are direct benefits Do we not also receive many indirect benefits from insects?
Mention a few of them.
Describe the services of the flesh fly.
How does the ichneumon fly render service to us?
And how does the ladybird benefit us?
To what purpose do the colours of insects contribute?
Describe some of the great varieties of their colour and clothing.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
In what countries are silkworms abundant?
On what plants do they feed?
In what towns of Britain are silk manufactures carried on?
What would be the consequence of the extermination of this insect?
What products do we obtain from bees?
To what people is honey more important than to us? And why?
What is the country of the cochineal insect?
On what plant is it reared?
To what purpose is the insect put?
How many pounds do we import annually; and how many insects are there in a single pound?
What wonderful adaptation for concealment is found in many caterpillars?
SECTION X. OF INSECTS AND W0RMS.
Animals with soft elastic bodies are called mollusca. A great number of the mollusca have a long, soft, cylindrical body, formed of a succession of fleshy rings, but without legs. These are worms. Some of them inhabit the earth, but the greater number of them have their birth, life, happiness, and death in the waters. The leech, an aquatic worm, chiefly inhabits fresh waters. Some of the mollusca have shells, others have none.
Some species of the snail have shells for their abodes; they have also horns or feelers, at the ends of which their eyes are placed. These feelers can be drawn inwards like the inversion of the finger of a glove. The nautilus has a boat-shaped shell, in which it can rise to the surface of the ocean, or sink to the bottom. The cuttle-fish attains a great size; it has soft arms or feelers, and powerful jaws; it can wind its arms round a crab or lobster, tear asunder the shell with its horny beak, and feed on the flesh.
Shells are found in gardens, plantations, and woods; in lakes, pools, and rivers; on the shores of the sea; and in the great depths of the ocean. The giant clamp shell with its animal, attains the weight of five or six hundred pounds; other shells are so minute, that they will pass through a paper in which holes have been pricked with the smallest needle. Shells change in size and form as the inhabitant passes from the immature to the mature state.
Animalcula live in water; they cannot be seen without the aid of a powerful microscope. Star-fish and jelly-fish are found on the coasts. The coral-polyp forms chalky rocks, which become islands. Sponge is the fibrous skeleton of an animal.
USES OF WORMS. WORM CASTS. THE LEECH.
Worms The rings forming the bodies of earth-worms are furnished with minute curved bristles, which form fixed points of support, by which they push their way. They live beneath the surface of the earth, and move about but little during the day, unless they are disturbed; their mouth is destitute of teeth, and they feed on decaying particles of animal and vegetable matter. Many birds and quadrupeds devour the earth-worm: it is of great service to the agriculturist in loosening the soil. The worm-casts, which are their excrement, have been known to form three inches and a half of the finest mould in fifteen years. It has been supposed that worm casts were a very fertilizing manure, but this is an error, as they are deprived of every particle of organized matter by the process of digestion.
leechThe instinct of the leech to suck blood greedily has been turned to good account for the relief of human suffering. It does not appear that blood is the natural food of the leech, and even that which is received into its stomach is not digested Gosses Zoology for Schools.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 77.
Mollusca from mollis, soft; the mollusca are divided into two groups, those without and those with a distinct head; in each group there are three classes.
Worms from vermes; the present word is from wyrm (A.S.), rmes (Heb.), a worm.
Leech leeches and earth-worms belong to the class annellata, from annulus, a ring; the bodies of these animals being composed of a number of rugs. There are many species of the leech, and such is the demand for the medicinal leech, that four of the principal dealers in London import 7,200,000 annually.
snail the different kinds are very destructive in gardens; those without shells are called slugs; they have a kind of shield near the head, under which they can withdraw the head.
inversion from in, within, and verto, versum, to turn; to turn within.
nautilusfrom naus (Gr.), a ship, nautilos (Gr.), a mariner, is formed; the nautilus is a ship and a mariner in miniature.
cuttle-fish called octopus, from its eight feet also denominated sepia, from sepio, to enclose, on account of its many suckers and holders for enclosing its prey. It has 120 pairs of suckers, and a sharp hawks bill.
clamp-shell - one brought from Sumatra weighed 504 lb., and the sudden closing of its valves would snap a cable asunder.
minute from minutia, the smallest thing that may be seen or felt; from minus, less.
Immature from im for in, not, and maturus, ripe; i.e., unripe, imperfect.
animalcula from animalculum, a very little animal.
Microscope from mikros (Gr.), small, and scopeo (Gr.), to spy; invented by Cornelius Debrell, in 1618.
star-fish asterias, from aster (Gr.), a star; the body is generally rayed or radiated.
coral polyp - from korallion (Gr.), red coral, and polupous (Gr.), many feet. The islands in the South Sea are coral formations, covered with earth; many are in process of formation.
sponge from spoggos (Gr.), once supposed to be sea-moss, but now ascertained to consist of an albuminous skeleton and gelatinous matter.
QUESTIONS 77.
What does the term molluscs mean?
What is its derivation?
How are the two groups of the mollusca distinguished?
How are a great number of the molluscs formed?
What is their designation?
Where are they usually found?
Describe the peculiarities of some species of snail.
Where are their eyes placed?
What is there peculiar in their feelers?
Describe the nautilus.
What is the meaning of nautilus?
Is the cuttlefish a small animal?
Describe its form and powers.
Where are shells found?
Give a description of one of the largest shells known.
Do shells undergo change?
Are there any creatures so minute as not to be visible to the unassisted sight?
What are they called?
What sort of fish are found on coasts?
Which of the mollusks forms chalky rocks?
Where are these islands numerous?
What is sponge?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT N0TES.
With what are the ringed bodies of earth-worms furnished?
What is their use?
What are the habits of the earth-worm?
On what substances do they feed?
What birds devour the earth-worm?
What quadrupeds eat it?
In what manner does the earth-worm benefit the agriculturist?
What are worm casts?
What depth of fine mould have these worm-casts been known to form in fifteen years?
What erroneous supposition has been held respecting worm casts?
Why are they not fertilizing?
What lesson do we learn from this example of economy in nature?
What instinct has the leech?
How is it turned to good account?
Why is this instinct remarkable?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 78. Uses of Worms and Shells.
The burrowing of earth-worms is a process which is exceedingly useful to the farmer and to the gardener. They loosen the soil, rendering it pervious to rains and to the fibres of plants, and thus are more beneficial to man than they are injurious by devouring the vegetables on which they feed. The use of the leech is great; its saw-like bite is favourable to the flow of blood; it has three pairs of jaws, which all work at the same time, forming a triple bite. In its natural state the leech feeds on earth-worms and other soft animals. It is said that the idea of crossing the ocean was derived from the nautilus. The cuttlefish is not protected by a shell, but it has another means of concealment and escape from its enemies; it can emit a dark fluid from its body, and so blacken the water around, that its enemy cannot see it. This dark fluid is stored in a bag; it is the sepia, which artists use, and it is prepared in Italy for this purpose. A small molluscous animal, about an inch long, swarms in the Arctic Seas, which is the chief food of the whale; it is called the Clio borealis.
Shells are converted into useful purposes both by civilized and by uncivilized nations. One, the pearl oyster, produces the mother-of-pearl, which is extensively used for buttons, snuff- boxes, and for much inlaid work; and also costly pearls, which are as highly valued as precious stones. The common oyster also produces pearls. Large specimens of the giant clamp shell are sometimes used to receive the water from fountains. Many of the personal ornaments of savages, and some of their implements, are made of shells; as knives spoons, fish-hooks, and drinking cups. In a part of Africa a small kind of cowry is used for money.
THE NAUTILUS. THE CLIO. SHELLS.
the nautilus It is usually represented in pictures with six arms extended over the sides of the shell, as paddles, and two others raised upwards, as sails, but it is now ascertained that it never moves along in the manner thus described.
clio borealis In the polar seas these little creatures exist by countless millions, disporting themselves amidst the horrors of perpetual cold. They are described as little marine butterflies, making the sea quite alive with their gambols. Their apparatus for prehension is, perhaps, unequalled in the creation.
Shells It is supposed that the oyster, which furnished a dinner to a whole
regiment, was the giant clamp shell. To contrast with this story, Patterson mentions that he filled four quills with small shells, twenty-two of which weighed only two grains; the number of shells thus enclosed was 880. The weight of the quills when enclosed in a letter was less than half an ounce, and thus 880 living animals and their habitations were transmitted from Belfast to Dublin, per mail, for one penny. Patterson's Zoology for Schools.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 78.
earth-wormsthe rings of the body are not perfectly smooth, but are furnished with minute bristles or recurved hooks, forming points for its support as it pushes its way.
Leech - the suctorial discs at each end of the body can be used as a support in their locomotion. France, Sweden, Poland, and Hungary supply us with leeches.
Nautilus Pope says
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale:
but the nautilus never moves in this manner; it can rise to the surface, and it can sink itself; nor are the arms ever used as oars, nor the broad discs as sails; it can creep along the bottom like other mollusks.
emit from emitto, emttere, to send forth.
swarms from swearmian (A.S.), to wander in flocks; leagues of the Arctic ocean seem to be alive with them.
Clio borealis about an inch in length; itself a tyrant, with vast powers for preying on smaller creatures; it has upon its head 360,000 microscopic suckers, giving it enormous prehensive power.
pearl-oyster the concretions called pearls are formed of the same substance as the inner shell, and produced by a disease in the animal.
mother-of-pearl the inner coating of the shell; it is called nacre.
inlaid work that is, wrought into wood or other substances in fanciful lines or figures for ornament.
Pearls the most perfect and beautiful of jewels, yet they owe nothing to the art of man. Pliny, struck with the similarity of pearls to a dew-drop, formed the elegant hypothesis that the oyster rose every morning to the surface of the water, and having expanded its shell, imbibed the dew of heaven, which forthwith assumed the shape and colour of a real pearl.
cowry the cowries are exquisitely beautiful and diversified; the Arabic cowry is embellished with lines of hieroglyphics, and the orange cowry is worn as an ornament by the chiefs in the Pacific Islands.
QUESTIONS 78.
What benefits do we receive from the earth-worm?
How is the earth-worm injurious?
Are its benefits or its injuries great?
Is the leech of service?
Describe its apparatus for drawing blood.
On what does it feed?
What countries supply us with leeches?
What suggestion is ascribed to the nautilus?
What is the fact respecting the movements of the nautilus?
How does the cuttle-fish protect itself?
Is this black fluid of use?
Upon what mollusk does the whale feed?
Tell me something respecting the habits of this small mollusk.
Are shells made useful by man?
Whence is mother-of-pearl obtained?
Whence are pearls obtained?
What was Plinys hypothesis as to the formation of pearls?
To what use is the clamp-shell sometimes applied?
Are shells turned to any purpose by uncivilized people?
To what uses do they apply them?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How is the nautilus usually represented?
What idea is this representation intended to convey?
Is the name nautilus favourable to the idea?
What was the octopus or poulpe formerly called?
On what account?
Where is the Clio borealis found?
How are these little animals described?
What is stated in the explanations (above) as to their apparatus for prehension?
What story is supposed to refer to the giant clamp shell?
Very minute shells are sometimes found How many were put in four quills and forwarded by post from Belfast to Dublin?
Shells of various kinds and other molluscous animals are to be found on all our coasts, which would furnish many an interesting lesion, aided by the two admirable volumes for schools, one by Patterson, the other by Gosse; both works being copious on the invertebrate animals.
SECTION XI. OF PLANTS.
The verdant hue of plants is agreeable to the eye, their flowers adorn the earth with a variety of colours; and of many kinds the fruit is useful for nourishment or grateful for refreshment. All plants live, feed, and grow.
Plants include trees, shrubs, grasses, herbs, ferns, mosses, lichens, fungi, and algae. The sea-weeds called algae are the vegetation of the deep; they are found in rocky beds, and on the coasts of the sea. The green slime of stagnant waters also consists of algae. The fungi grow in nearly all situations, and assume all varieties of form; mushrooms, toadstools, puff-balls, mould, and mildew are all fungi. Lichens are the next form of vegetation; they grow on old walls, exposed wood, the bark of trees, and on rocks. Mosses are the next forms of vegetable life; they have roots, stems, leaves, and seeds. Ferns have a still higher organization; they generally grow in shady and moist situations, and bear seeds on the back of their leaves. Grasses are perhaps the most abundant form of vegetation on the earth; the larger species are the corn-plants, the smaller are the chief food of cattle.
Plants of a perfect organization have roots, stems, buds, leaves, blossoms, and seed-vessels; and these vary in different species in their parts and structure. Their roots ate tubers, bulbs, or fibres; the stem rises upwards, and bears buds which produce blossoms, and seed-vessels in which the seeds are perfected.
Annuals grow from seed, perfect their flowers, mature the seeds for a new generation, and die within a year. Perennials perfect their seeds, but continue alive year after year. There are said to be 80,000 species of plants.
THE THREE GREAT CLASSES OF PLANTS.
plants of a perfect organization There are three great classes of plants, - exogens, endogens, and acrogens. This is the simplest division.
Exogens are all those plants whose leaves have their veins branched, forming a sort of tine net-work; the dock, the currant, the oak, the elm, are examples. A cross section of the stem of such plants will show that they contain pith in the centre, then a ring of wood, and on the outside, a covering of bark. In its growth an exogen gradually increases the thickness of the stem, by forming the new wood over the old, beneath the bark, in concentric circles; there being as many circles as the plant is years old. A large proportion of the plants of Europe are exogens.
Endogens are those plants whose leaves have all their veins parallel, and not reticulated, as grasses, the hyacinth, crocus, &c. If a cross section of the stem is examined, it presents no distinction of pith, wood, and bark, nor is it radiated, but a confused mass of pithy matter.
Acrogens are cryptogamic plants. (See foot notes, 86.) Lindleys Botany.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 79.
Verdant probably from viridis, green; the colour of plants.
gratefulfrom charis, charitos (Gr.) joy, grace; deduced for chairo (Gr.), to rejoice.
algae from alga, a sea-weed; some species are found in fresh water; some algae live at 1,000 feet below the surface of the water; and one species is said to extend fromn 500 to 1,500 feet in length.
fungi from fungus (Lat.), deduced from sphoggos (Gr.), a mushroom. The exhalations from plants generally purify the atmosphere, but those that arise from fungi are noxious.
Lichen from leichen (Ger.), ulcer, gangrene; the plant itself; lichens thrive best in the light and air; none are ever found In caverns or mines; their growth under the most favourable circumstances is slow.
Mosses from moschos (Gr.), a young sprout. They are the first form of vegetation that clothe the soil, and become soonest decomposed.
Ferns the highest class of the flowerless plants; they have a stem, in some species woody; and a bold, handsome foliage. In tropical climates the stem of the tree-fern rises upright like that of a tree; the wood has not, however, much solidity.
Grasses a very large tribe of plants; they have seeds and fructifying parts, but no flowers, and they are generally evergreens; dried they form hay; the corn plants, the sugar-cane, and the bamboo are all grasses.
Tubers such roots as the potato, iris, and dahlia.
Bulbs from bolbos (Gr,), such as the tulip and hyacinth.
Stem woody in trees and covered with bark; succulent or fleshy in the aloe and cactus; medullary, i.e., pithy, as in the centre of the rush and elder; hollow or tubular, as in the hemlock and fennel.
Annuals from annus, a year.
Perennials from per, throughout, and annus, the year.
QUESTIONS 79.
What is the meaning of verdant?
Is this colour agreeable to the eye?
How do plants in other respects adorn the earth?
Are plants useful as well as pleasing?
Have plants life? do they feed and grow?
What does the term plants include?
What are algae?
Give an example of a1gae.
What are fungi?
Give some examples.
What is the difference in their exhalations and those of other plants?
What are lichens?
Where are they found?
What are mosses?
Describe their parts.
Where do ferns grow?
Are grasses abundant?
What are the larger species?
For what are the smaller grasses useful?
Enumerate the parts of perfect plants.
Which are the principal kinds of roots?
What is the stem, and its use?
Explain the meaning of annuals.
Also that of perennials.
How many species of plants are said to exist?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What names are given to the three great classes of plants?
Why should this division of plants be understood?
What peculiarity is there in the leaves of all exogens?
Give me examples.
Fetch in a few specimens of leaves, and we will try to understand the leaf of an exogen.
What will a cross-section of the stem of an exogen show?
This description is so plain no mistake can arise How can we tell the age of an exogen?
There is also another striking appearance in an exogen viz., fine lines radiating from the pith to the bark How does the exogen increase the thickness of its stem?
What appearance have the leaves of endogens ?
Give examples. Examine the leaves of grasses, &c., and see if they have network of veins as in the exogens.
What additional distinction is there in their stems?
What are acrogens?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Trees consist of four principal parts the root, the trunk, the branches, and the leaves. The substance of the root is similar to that of the trunk and branches woody. At the ends of the roots are the rootlets or fibres, which draw moisture from the earth. The moisture from the roots is drawn to the leaves through the trunk and branches; it is converted into sap by the action of the leaves and the atmosphere, and descends to nourish the tree. The trunk and branches are covered with bark; in the centre of the wood is a soft substance called pith. Shrubs are low woody plants, generally with numerous slender stems.
Trees have been divided into the resinous, called also coniferous, consisting of firs, pines, larches, and cedars; the hard-wooded, as the oak, the elm, the ash, the beech, the chestnut, the walnut, the acacia, the holly, the box, the yew; and the soft-wooded, as the horse-chestnut, the lime, the alder, the poplar, and the willow. Mahogany, teak, rose-wood, satin-wood, and a few others are fancy-woods. Some trees, as the pines, produce straight timber, which is used for planks; others, as the oak, chestnut, and some elms, produce crooked timber, used for the knees and bends of ships; others, as the yew, holly, ash, and hickory, produce tough timber; others, as the willow and birch, are grown for their flexible shoots, which are employed to make baskets, besoms, hoops, &c.
The principa1 fruits produced in the gardens and orchards of Britain are the pippin fruits, of which the apple and the pear are the principal; the stone fruits, including several varieties of the plum, the cherry the peach and the apricot; and berries, including the gooseberry, the currant, the raspberry, and the strawberry.
CONIFERS. HARD-WOODS. MAHOGANY.
Coniferous These are noble trees or evergreen shrubs; they are natives of all parts of the world, from Arctic America to the Indian Archipelago. Their secretions consist of various kinds of resins, such as turpentine, pitch, balsams and gums. Some of the species of wood these trees produce are considered so durable as to be almost indestructible. The gates of Constantinople, which stood 1100 years, were of Cypress, and the Deodara wood, of India, is all but imperishable.
hard-wooded - Trees of this quality of timber grow in all parts of the earth; in the tropics, however, the oaks and chestnuts are the chief of them. It is a curious fact respecting the species of oak that yields cork (the cork tree), that hen the tree is left to nature, it seldom lives more than fifty or sixty years, bit when the bark is stripped off every eighth or tenth year it will live a century and a half.
Mahogany This tree attains a great height and thickness, a single log has been known to weigh seven tons, and to sell for £500. There are dense forests of huge mahogany trees at the Isthmus of Darien, which are at present inaccessible.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 80.
Root from roet (Swed.), or from writhiann (A.S.), to grow; roots develop themselves most in that direction whence they receive most nutriment.
Trunk from truncus, cut, lopped off; the trunk is the body with the branches lopped off.
Branches from brachium, the arm or bough of a tree.
Sap from sapa, the juice or moisture of trees.
bark from beorgan, to defend; the bark of a tree defends it from injury and from decay.
Pith from pitha (A.S.), marrow or pith.
Resinous from roisin (Celtic), a gum that exudes from trees; probably from rheo (Gr.), to flow.
Coniferous from conus, a cone, a fir-cone, and fero, ferre, to bear or produce.
hollythis is the best white wood for Tunbridge ware; it works well and takes a high polish.
Teak an Indian wood from Peru and Malabar, and one of the best for ship building; it is said that the ravenous white ants, which eat nearly all kinds of timber, will not touch teak.
Mahogany from the West India Islands, Honduras, Panama, Africa, and South Australia..
Rosewood from the East Indies, Mexico, the Brazils, Africa, and Honduras.
satin-wood from Porto Rico, St. Domingo, and the East Indies.
Fancy-woods other kinds are ebony, from Africa, the West Indies, and Ceylon; kingwood, from the Brazils; birds-eye maple, from America; red saunders, from the East Indies; sandal wood, from the Pacific Islands; and tulip wood and zebra wood, from the Brazils.
Orchards from ortgeard (A.S.), wort-yard; generally applied to a piece of land planted with apple trees. The principal orchards of England are in Devonshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Somersetshire, and Worcestershire.
Apple its history extends far beyond the earliest records; it was known to the Greeks in its cultivated state in the time of Homer.
plum it is the opinion of the best physiologists that the sloe of our hedges was the original of all the numerous and rich variety of plums.
QUESTIONS 80.
Describe the parts of trees.
What analogy exists between the root and other parts?
What are the rootlets?
What is their office?
Whence is moisture introduced into a tree?
What is the outer coating of a tree called?
What is the pith?
Describe shrubs.
Into what great divisions have trees been classed?
Give examples of resinous or coniferous trees.
- Of hard wooded.
- Of soft wooded.
- Of fancy woods.
What trees produce straight timber?
What trees afford crooked timber?
For what purposes are the crooked portions used?
What trees have tough timber?
What are willow and birch useful for?
Name the principal British fruits.
Give examples of the pippin fruits.
- Of stone fruits.
- Of esculent berries.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Where are the coniferous trees to be found?
Can you give me any examples of them that grow in this country?
Bring me the cones of different species when you can gather some There are many lessons, in a fir-cone.
What are the secretions of these trees?
Have you ever noticed any of these secretions on the living trees?
What quality is assigned to the wood of some kinds?
Give the examples mentioned in the notes.
Where do the hard-wooded trees grow?
Mention some of the trees of this kind.
What curious fact is given respecting the cork-oak?
Can you tell me in what countries the cork-tree grows?
What is stated of the size of the mahogany tree?
For how much has a single log been known to sell?
What was its weight?
Where are there dense forests of mahogany trees?
Why are they not cut down?
SECTION XI. OF PLANTS.
Lesson 81. Uses of Forest Trees
Timber for building, for furniture, for machinery, and for the fine arts is supplied by Forest Trees.
The coniferous trees supply most of the timber that is used in England for building purposes, as roofs, floors, doors, bridges, &c. This timber, known by the name of deal, is imported chiefly from Norway and Canada.
Hardness and toughness are the chief properties of the oak. It is valuable for ship-building, for which teak is also employed. Oak is also used for building purposes and for furniture. Elm bears the changes of dryness and moisture better than any other timber; it is therefore used for water-wheels, pumps, pipes, and ship-planks. Ash is used for implements of husbandry, handles of tools, spokes of wheels, and hop-poles. Beech is employed by the wood-turner for trays, bowls, and trenchers, also for stools and bedsteads. Walnut is light, durable, and beautifully veined; it is used for furniture, and for the stocks of guns and pistols. The timber of the acacia is used for cogs by millwrights, and in some parts of America for ship-building, where it is considered as valuable as oak. Yew was formerly in request for the bows of the English archers; it is now used for Windsor chairs. Lime is used by carvers, turners, and musical instrument makers. Alder is used in water-works by the millwright, and for shoemakers lasts. Willow, being light and tough, is made into saddletrees, cricket-bats, lasts, clogs, pattens, and hay-rakes, and its twigs into baskets, and various kinds of wicker work. Box is used for rules of all kinds, but its most important application is for wood-engraving. Foreign woods, such as mahogany, rose-wood, satin-wood, birds-eye-maple, &c., are used chiefly for veneering and for ornamental cabinet-work.
THE PINE FORESTS. TEAK. VENEERS.
timber for building The timber from the Scottish forests is floated down to the sea by the rivers Tay, Spey, Dee, Ness and Beauly. The pines of the Scandinavian mountains are brought to the sea westward, by the rivers Gotha, in Sweden, and Glomm, in Norway. On the southern shores of the Baltic, the river Memel is the principal channel of conveyance to the sea. The Rhine, and the Danube, bring down to the sea much of the pine timber of Germany. The timber of Canada is also floated down rivers, by single trees and logs at first, where the rivers are narrow, but where the river widens sufficiently the trees are formed into rafts.
Teak The heavy East Indian teak abounds in silex, by some authorities it is considered to be the most durable timber grown.
foreign woods Amboyna wood and ebony, used for inlaying and turnery; camphor wood, for entomologists cabinets; sandal wood for work-boxes and trinkets; red cedar, for the inside parts of drawers and cabinets; lignum vitae, for clocks and pulleys; many other kinds are used for light fancy articles.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 81.
Timber from timbrian (A.S), to build, to construct.
Coniferous trees Norway and Sweden export considerable quantities. Scotch fir attains great perfection in the northern part of Britain; the spruce fir is used for scaffold-poles and ladders; the larch, for house carpentry and ship-building; the silver fir, the pine, and the Scotch fir, for rafters, girders, and carpentry; the cedar of Lebanon for furniture and ornamental joinery.
Deal the Norway deal is very superior to that of Canada.
Canada an extensive country of North America, belonging to Great Britain; formerly it consisted of two great provinces, which are now united, called respectively Upper and Lower Canada; the former of them is now called Canada West, its capital is Toronto; the capital of the lower province is Quebec.
Oak the most durable of the English woods, but owing to the difficulty and expense of working it, other kinds of timber are preferred. Wainscot is a particular species of oak which is imported in logs from Russia and Prussia.
Acacia much used for posts and rails in the United States; it is also used for trenails the wooden pins used to fasten the planks of a ship together.
Mahogany there are vast forests of mahogany trees in Honduras, which will be felled for the market should a railway or a ship canal be made through central America.
Veneering the fancy woods are generally used in thin plates or veneers; the choicer wood being laid down with glue upon wood of a plainer kind.
Ornamental the chief beauty in fancy woods arises from their variegated colours, and from their tortuous fibres waving in different directions, showing beautiful variations of lustre, and in some cases forming eyes, spots, and curls as the light is reflected on their polished surfaces.
QUESTIONS 81.
What do forest trees provide us with?
In what respects are the coniferous trees useful?
Where are the different kinds chiefly produced?
Whence is deal imported?
What are the characters of the oak?
What is wainscot?
Is teak useful, and for what?
For what is elm especially useful?
How is ash employed?
What workman uses beech chiefly?
Is walnut useful, and how?
What is acacia used for?
Mention other purposes to which it applied in the United States.
For what is the yew in request?
What was it formerly used for?
In what trades is the lime timber used?
By whom is the alder used?
How is the willow employed?
To what purposes is box applied?
Name some foreign woods.
Whence is mahogany obtained?
What do you mean by veneering?
What constitutes the chief beauty fancy woods?
QUESTIONS ON FOOTNOTES.
How is the timber of the Scottish forests got to the sea?
Where are the Scandinavian mountains?
How are the pines that grow there brought to the sea?
From what district does the Memel bring timber to the sea?
By what rivers are the pines of Germany floated seawards?
How is the timber of Canada, &c., brought to the sea?
What timber abouds in silex?
What character has this timber?
What foreign woods are used for inlaying and turnery?
For what purpose is camphor-wood used?
Tell me the uses to which some of the other fancy woods are applied.
What workmen chiefly use the plain woods?
What workmen use the fancy woods?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
The corn plants are those best adapted for food, because they contain a great proportion of a farinaceous, or mealy substance, which is suitable for the sustenance and nourishment of animal life.
All kinds of grain, pulse, and tuberous roots, including peas, beans, and potatoes, contain farinaceous matter, but the corn-plants have the greatest quantity.
The grain-bearing plants are annual in their growth; they are sown, spring up, shoot into ear, ripen, and die root and stem within the year. Plants so important as these are provided with extraordinary means for protection and preservation. They are elevated by the length of their stem above the moisture of the ground; the stalks are so smooth that the rain runs down them to the root; they are knotted, and supported by blades of grass, that their strength may resist the violence of winds; they are pointed, flexible, and light, so that the birds may not rest upon them and pick out the grains; the grains are lodged in husks, that the sun may not shrivel, nor the moisture rot them, and also to prevent the grain from being shaken cut by the operations of reaping and carrying.
Corn is valuable not only for the quality of its farinaceous food, but for its power of increase, which, however, depends greatly on the care and skill employed in its cultivation. So widely is its culture diffused, that if the harvest fail in one country there is almost a certainty of abundance in others. Wheat, which is the most important of all grain, may be stored for future supply, not for months only, but for many years. Barley, rye, and oats possess many of the valuable properties of wheat, as regards their growth and preservation, and often supply its place in the colder districts.
PRODUCE AND CONSUMPTION OF WHEAT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
the corn plants The average yield of wheat in England is said to be 18 bushels an acre, though it has been rated much higher. As much as 50 bushels an acre has been reported as the produce of a finely cultivated farm in a favourable season. in France, the yield averages 22 bushels an acre in the best districts.
From the best statistical accounts that can be obtained, the wheat annually produced in England, Scotland, and Ireland, is 110,000,000 bushels, in France nearly 2O0,00O,000 bushels, and in the United States of America, 100,000,000 bushels. Russia is the greatest corn-growing country in the world.
England requires for her own consumption about 32,000,000 bushels of wheat more than she produces. This is supplied from the ports in the Baltic and Black Seas, by Egypt, and by America. The quantity of wheat imported into the United Kingdom in 1852 was above 3,000,000 quarters; it has sometimes reached nearly 2,000,000 quarters more. Barley, oats, rye, and maize, are also imported in large
quantities, besides flour and meal. Simmond's Commercial Products.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 82.
Farinaceous from farina, meal, flour, starch. This nutritive ingredient, chiefly fund in corn and pulse, is very abundant in Carolina rice. It consists of white granules of various sizes, generally of a roundish and rarely of an angular form.
Grain from granum, a seed; the graminae or grass tribe comprehends a very large number of plants; they form the principal food for man and cattle; those called the corn-plants are more commonly used for the food of man, because of the large size of the grain.
Potatoes the first field crop of potatoes raised in this country was in Scotland, in the year 1732. As a garden plant it had been cultivated in various parts since its introduction by Sir Waiter Raleigh.
extraordinary from extra, beyond, and ordo, ordinis, custom, rule; beyond order, custom, or rule.
widely diffused barley and oats in the North of Europe; rye in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and all countries bordering on the Baltic; wheat in the middle of France, England, part of Scotland, Germany, Hungary, the Crimea, the Caucasus, and Middle Asia; rice and maize with wheat in Portugal, Spain, the South of France, Italy and Greece, Persia, Northern India, Egypt, Arabia, and Bsrbary; maize in the temperate parts of the United States, and rice in the southern parts; and rice in all the hotter parts of Asia. America is the native country of maize, and Asia of rice.
Harvest haerefaest (A.S.), from harian (A.S.), to become hoary, i.e. white unto the harvest.
wheat hwaete (A.S.), the principal wheat counties in England are Kent, Essex, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Rutlandshire, and Bedfordshire.
Barley the chief barley growing counties are Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Beds, Leicester, Notts, and Berks, and the upper parts of Hereford, Warwick, and Salop.
Rye not much raised in England, though the straw is of nearly equal value with the grain.
Oats the best oats are raised in Friesland and Scotland.
QUESTIONS 82.
What plants furnish us with the best kind of food?
Explain the reason.
Do not other plants contain this farinaceous substance?
Which plants have it in the largest quantity?
How long do grain plants require for their perfection?
Are they very liable to perish?
What circumstances contribute to their preservation?
Mention these circumstances in succession.
Are the corn-plants capable of increase?
Upon what conditions does the increase mainly depend?
Are the corn-plants much diffused?
How does this general distribution diminish the risk of want in any country where the crop fails?
Give me some particulars as to the distribution of the corn-plants.
Is wheat capable of being stored?
What grains come next to wheat in importance?
In what climates are the corn-plants of great value?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is considered to be the yield of wheat in this country per acre?
What has been reported as the yield of a finely-cultivated farm in a favourable season?
What is stated as the yield per acre in the best districts of France?
What is the annual production of wheat in the United Kingdom considered to be?
What in France?
How much in the United States of America?
Which is the largest corn-growing country in the world?
What proportion of the population of Russia is engaged in agriculture? (See Explanations 92, steppes.)
How much more wheat do we require annually than we produce in England?
What circumstance may favourably affect this estimate?
Whence is wheat supplied to England?
Do we import any other kinds of grain?
SECTION XI. OF PLANTS.
The vegetables usually grown in kitchen-gardens are the cabbage kind, peas and beans, various roots, the onion kind, salad-herbs, sweet-herbs, &c Of some plants we eat the leaves, of others the roots, of others the stem, of others the flower, and of others the seed.
Of the cabbage kind we have the common cabbage, the red cabbage (for pickling), the savoy, the colewort, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower. These and some other plants bear flowers shaped like a square cross; they are called cruciform plants, and are all wholesome.
Of the pea and bean kind, which are called leguminous, we have the various sorts of green peas which are eaten young, and some kinds which are grown in large quantities by the farmer, and used in making soup. Windsor beans, French beans, scarlet-runners, and lentils belong also to the leguminous plants. All these plants bear their seeds in pods.
Of roots we have the potato, the Jerusalem artichoke, the carrot, the parsnip, the beet, the radish, and the horse-radish. Turnips are cultivated both for their roots and for their leaves. Turnip-tops, when young, are considered a delicacy.
Of the onion kind, called alliaceous, we have the common onion, the leek, the garlic, the shallot, and the chive. All these are natives of the East, though they grow in Britain. They have a peculiar odour and pungency which no other plants possess, and are all wholesome.
The salad-herbs cultivated in most gardens are lettuce, endive, mustard, cress, parsley, celery, and where there is a clear running water, water-cresses.
The sweet herbs are rosemary, lavender, thyme, sage, marjoram, savory, fennel, balm, mint, rue, hyssop, &c.
Besides these, rhubarb is cultivated for its leaf-stalks, spinach for its leaves, asparagus for its green top, seakale for its blanched stalks, and artichokes for their green flower-heads.
GARDENS OF THE RICH. MARKET GARDENS. ALLOTMENTS.
the vegetables usually grown, &c. There are three kinds of gardens, 1st, The gardens of the rich man, who employs gardeners. The cost of these gardens is generally much more than the produce is worth, though that produce may be of the finest kinds, but the value of them to the country is very great, as in them are reared the finest kinds of vegetables, flowers, and fruit, which become disseminated throughout the country by means of seeds, cuttings, slips, &c. 2ndly, The market gardens, in which the vegetables and fruits most in demand for the table are cultivated for our markets; these gardens are generally made very profitable. 3rdly, The poor man's garden, which is cultivated by himself and his family, and the chief produce of which is consumed by themselves. The comfort which a well managed allotment gives to a labourer with a numerous family is hardly credible to those who have not witnessed it; and if there were less profit it would still be very beneficial, in a moral and political point of view, that early habits of industry should be encouraged. "Garden Husbandry," Penny Cyclopedia.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 83.
Kitchen gardens the market gardeners of London understand the management of kitchen gardens thoroughly. The principal garden for all kinds of plants in England is that at Kew; a fine establishment supported by the government. The next in importance is that of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick.
Leaves cabbage, sage, lettuce, &c.
Root potato, Jerusalem artichoke, &c.
Stem sea-kale, rhubarb, &c.
Flower artichokes, cauliflower, &c.
Seed peas, beans, grain, &c.
cabbage-kind these plants possess antiscorbutic and stimulant qualities, but none that are poisonous.
cruciform from crux, crucis, a cross, and forma, a shape or form; having four equal petals in the form of a cross.
leguminous from legume (Fr.), from lego, to gather, because gathered, not cut; legumes, or pulse, next to the corn-plants, form the most important kind of vegetable food; the seeds of these plants contain more nitrogen than the corn-plants. The substance called casein is abundant in peas and beans, which is identical in chemical character with that separated from milk in the form of cheese.
lentils from lentilles (Fr.); a meal or flour is made of lentils, which is light and easy of digestion; it is sometimes sold as Ervalenta, or as Revalenta Arabica.
Aliaceous from allium, garlic, deduced from aleo (Gr.), to avoid, to shun, as being unpleasant to most people; having the properties of allium or garlic; including all the onion tribe; the varieties are numerous. The long and warm summers of Spain and Portugal are favourable to the growth of onions, which attain a larger size and a finer flavour than those grown in Britain.
salad herbs herbs, the leaves of which are eaten raw, with salt, oil, &c. Many of this class of plants were formerly esteemed for their real or imaginary medicinal qualities, together with others, the cultivation of which has ceased in gardens. The names of many plants express their real or supposed virtues, as all-heal, gout-weed, worm-wood, feverfew, sauce-alone, &:c.
sweet herbs many are cultivated for the perfumes they yield; others as seasoning, in culinary preparations.
QUESTIONS 83.
What plants are usually cultivated in kitchen gardens?
Are the same parts of all kinds of plants eaten?
Mention some of the varieties of the cabbage.
By what name are plants of this kind called?
Why are they called cruciform?
What are plants of the pea and bean kind called?
Give some examples of leguminous plants.
Why are they called leguminous?
Tell me something about lentils.
Tell me the names of some vegetables distinguished by the term roots.
Are turnip-tops ever eaten?
What is meant by alliaceous?
Mention a few of these plants.
Of what part are they natives?
What is there peculiar in them?
Where do onions attain a large size and fine flavour?
Name some of the salad herbs.
Tell me the names of some plants which were supposed to express their peculiar virtues.
Which are the principal sweet herbs?
What other plants are commonly cultivated?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is stated respecting the gardens of the rich?
Why are these gardens a great benefit to the community?
What is the second kind of gardens mentioned?
What is their object?
Why are they profitable?
How should they be situated to be profitable?
What is it requisite to convey to such gardens?
What is conveyed from them?
How is the poor mans garden cultivated?
What becomes of its produce?
What should he aim to produce in it?
What great saving is it to him?
How is it otherwise beneficial?
Tell me what kind of work children may perform in a garden.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Plants furnish remedies for many of the diseases to which mankind are liable.
Of some plants we use the root, powdered, or otherwise prepared; of others the flowers; some yield juices, which harden and become solid; others yield oil from their seeds; the leaves of some are infused in water, to draw out their medicinal virtues; the buds of others are used; and preparations are made from the bark of others.
Many of the medicines which are beneficial in small quantities, would produce death if taken in large quantities. The poisons furnish some of the most valuable remedies for diseases. Some of the medicines received into the stomach pass into the blood, and affect the whole system; others excite action only in the stomach; others act on the skin; others on particular organs, as the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, the bowels.
The powdered roots of jalap and rhubarb are employed as purgative medicines, and that of ipecacuanha is used to create vomiting, when the stomach is overloaded or disordered; another preparation of ipecacuanha is employed to promote perspiration. Camomile-flowers and poppy-heads are steeped together in hot water to make fomentations for outward swellings. Foxglove, hen bane, hemlock, and tobacco, are all narcotic poisons, but valuable as medicines, if administered in proper quantities. Aloes, scammony, and the leaves of senna, are employed as purgative medicines. Opium, which is the hardened juice of a species of poppy, is taken internally in small quantities, to produce sleep; a preparation of it is also used for external bruises and swellings. Squills, a kind of onion, are employed to promote the secretion of phlegm. Peruvian bark is given after fevers to strengthen the stomach.
DRUGS, ETC, OBTAINED FROM PLANTS.
Remedies Iodine, yielded by sea-weeds, is used for glandular swellings. Soda formerly produced in large quantities from sea-weeds, is now manufactured from salt. Veratria, or white hellebore, excites violent sneezing, if only a few small particles of the dust are taken up the nose; it is a dangerous emetic, producing great irritation on the coats of the stomach. Meadow saffron, or colchicum, is a violent poison; it is employed to relieve the gout, but it is a dangerous remedy. All the nightshades have narcotic properties, and many of them are used in medicine. The figs and banyans belong to a tribe of trees which secrete milky fluids; Some of them, as the cow-tree, furnish an excellent milk, others supply India rubber from their juices. The poppies yield opium, a poisonous drug of great value in medicine. The preserved pulp of the tamarind, the liquorice, senna, and indigo, which as used as a medicine as well as a dye, are all yielded by leguminous plants. The ervum lens, ervalenta, revalenta arabica, so much advertised as food for infants and invalids, is the flour of the lentil freed from its outer skin.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 84.
Root as the mandrake, milkweed, ginger, hellebore, orris, orchis, gentian, coichicum.
leaves as the senna, marsh mallow, spruce leaves, agrimony.
Flowers flur (Welsh), bloom; fleur (Fr.), flos, floris (Lat.), a flower; as the camomile, mountain arnica.
juices as the myrrh, asafoetida, the aloes, the poppy, the bitter orange.
Oil as thbe almond, the nuts, the olive, the palma christi.
Infused from in, into, and fundo, fudi, fusum, to pour; mixed by steeping or soaking; as parsley seed, senna, hops, horehound, dandelion.
Buds as cloves, wormwood.
Bark as the barberry, Peruvian bark, white oak and white pine barks, cinnamon.
Poisons as the deadly nightshade, the hemlock, the henbane.
stomach as quassia, dill, centaury, peppermint.
Skin as black pepper, sassafras, horseradish.
Lungs as lobelia, storax, lung-wort.
Liver as dandelion, wild cherry, bark.
Kidneys as sarsaparilla, juniper, bearberry.
bowels as jalap, rhubarb, aloes.
jalap native of Mexico; the root is tuberous, and contains a milky fluid.
Rhubarb the medicinal properties vary a little in the Turkey, Russian, Chinese, and East Indian species.
Ipecacuanha native of Bratil; the root contains an active ingredient called emetine; it has also sweating pro.perties.
camomile found in a wild state, and also cultivated largely; the wild sort is most efficacious.
poppy heads yielding opium.
foxglove very abundant in England; both the leaves and seeds yield a powerful medicine.
Narcotic from narke (Gr.), numbness, drowsiness; promoting sleep.
Senna the several kinds are species of cassia.
Scammony the root of a species of convolvulus.
squills obtained from the bulbs of a plant of the lily family.
onion from unio, onion, deduced from unus, one; a root consisting not of many parts, but of one bulb.
Peruvian bark about 500,000 lbs. are imported into England annually; much of it is exported to other countries.
QUESTIONS 84.
Are plants useful otherwise than for food?
For what purpose are they also used?
Are the same parts of all plants used for medicines?
Why is caution required in administering those medicines?
Are any poisons used in the cure of diseases?
Have all medicines the same effect on the human system?
What parts of the body are acted on by different remedies?
What medicines are used as purgatives?
What is ipecacuanha used for?
What arc poppy heads and camomile flowers useful for?
What is the meaning of narcotic?
Name a few plants which have narcotic properties.
Are narcotics used in medicine?
For what purpose is opium taken internally?
What preparation of opium is there?
For what is it used?
What are squills?
For what purpose are they taken?
What is given after fevers for strengthening the stomach?
What quantity of Peruvian bark is imported annually into England?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What diseases is iodine employed to allay?
From what plants was soda formerly produced?
From what is soda now produced?
What effect has white hellebore on the system?
For what purpose is colchicum employed?
What properties have the nightshades?
What plants secrete milky fluids?
Which of them supplies a wholesome milk?
What substance does another produce?
What plants yield opium?
What useful drugs do we obtain from some of the leguminous plants?
What is the ervum lens?
Under what name has it been made famous?
What is the Revalenta Arabica?
SECTION XI. OF PLANTS.
Flowering plants are cultivated in gardens for the beauty of their colours, and for the fragrance of their perfumes.
Annuals are sown early in spring, and some hardy kinds the preceding autumn; they grow, flower, perfect their seed, and die in the course of a year. Among them are to be found all colours, and every variety of foliage; the larkspur, candy-tuft, sunflower, and poppy, are examples of annuals. Biennials are sown one year and flower the next; many of them are large handsome plants, of bright colours and bold foliage. Among the biennials are the wall-flower, the Canterbury-bell, the holly-hock, the sweet-william, the fox-glove. Perennials are generally called herbaceous plants, they seldom die at the root, but year after year continue to throw out new foliage and flowers. Among them are the columbine, polyanthus, violet, and pansy. Bulbs are spherical bodies at the base of the flower-stem, attached to which are fibrous roots; tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, lilies, and crocuses are bulbs. Tubers are roots that have knobs, sometimes connected with stalks and fibrous roots, as the dahlia, the anemone, and the ranunculus. Shrubby plants, as the rose, the jasmine, and the honeysuckle, have woody sterns. Evergreens, as the box and laurustinus, are plants that retain their leaves during the winter. Deciduous shrubs are those that cast their leaves in winter, as the hawthorn, the blackthorn, and the willow.
Indigenous plants are those that are natives of a country, some being in a wild state, others improved by culture, as the primrose. Exotics are plants which have been introduced from foreign countries, as the geraniums, many heaths, and a great number of our most showy flowers of every kind.
THE PARTS 0F A FLOWER.
Flowering plants The outlines of botanical knowledge may be easily communicated with the aid of a few flowers. To state that the calyx of a plant is a protection to the corolla, and not to explain, by means of pictures or an actual flower, which is the calyx and which the corolla, is not to communicate information, but words. The following explanation should be made with specimens or pictures:
A root is fibrous, as the daisy, bulbous, as the onion, or tuberous, as the dahlia; but the true roots are the fibres which are attached to the bulb or tuber.
The stem bears leaves and flowers; it conveys the fluid from the roots to the leaves, and back again.
The buds are small projections on the stem, from which branches (in trees and shrubs) are formed.
The leaves, contain ribs and veins, which branch in different ways; they are fed by the sap, and they act as organs of respiration, for they contain air. They are, at the same time, the lungs and stomach of the plant. (Continued.)
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 85.
flowering plants all plants flower except the cryptogamia (from crptos (Gr.), concealed, and gamos, marriage) which include algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, and ferns.
fragrance from fragro, fragrare, to smell sweetly; hence fraqrans, sweet smelling.
larkspur so named from the shape of a part of the flower being like that of the hind claw of the foot of the lark; it was formerly called larks heels.
candy-tuft the flowers grow in tufts; the plant was introduced from Candia.
Sunflower this flower opens under the influence of the suns beams, and turns towards that luminary; hence its botanical name heliotrope, from helios (Gr.), the sun, and trepo (Gr.), to turn. Imitations of the flower in gold were worn by the virgins of the sun in Peru, at their great festivals.
Biennials of two years existence from bis, two, and anni, years.
poppy Linnaeus states that he found 32,000 seeds in a single poppy head.
Wallflower so named from its growing on old walls.
Canterbury bell so named from its flowers resembling a little bell.
foxglove its flowers resemble the fingers of a glove; hence its name.
perennials from per, throughout, and annus, the year; outliving the year, perpetual.
Columbine from columba, a dove; the flowers, especially in the wild varieties, having the appearance of a nest of doves, with their bills meeting, and their wings expanded.
Pansy this flower derives its name from the French word pensee, thought or
fancy (phansy);probably in reference to its gay and fanciful colours.
Crocus so named from its yellow colour.
Dahlia named after Professor Dahl, a Swedish botanist.
Anemone from anemos (Gr.), wind; the wind-flower, so called from its ripened seeds, enveloped in vegetable wool, being easily dispersed by the wind.
honeysuckle the base of each tube of the flower contains a juice as sweet an honey; hence its name.
deciduous from de, down, and cado, to fall; the leaves of deciduous trees fall in autumn.
indigenous from indigeno, a native; native to a country.
Heath or heather; many of our heaths are covered with this plant, but thousands of acres in South Africa are thus covered with beautiful varieties.
exotics from exotikos (Gr.), outward, strange, foreign; plants brought from a foreign country, or produced in it.
QUESTIONS 85.
What are flowering plants cultivated for?
When are annuals sown?
Name a few annuals.
Can you give an idea of their diversity?
In what respect do biennials differ from annuals?
Name a few of the biennials.
What is the meaning of perennials?
By what other name are they known?
What is their name derived from?
Mention some of the perennials.
How is the name of the pansy derived?
What are bulbs? What are tubers?
After whom is the dahlia named?
What Is the anemone also called?
Why called the wind-flower?
Give some examples of shrubby plants.
How does the honeysuckle get its name ?
what are evergreens?
Mention examples of them.
What are deciduous plants?
What is the meaning of indigenous?
What plants are called exotics?
THE PARTS OF A FLOWER,CONTINUED.
The flower is the part which brings about the multiplication or the plant by seed; it generally grows upon the flower-stem; its principal parts are mentioned below :
The calyx is always on the outside of the flower; It is generally green; its shape is various; examples may be seen in the pink, the daffodil, the primrose, the dog-rose, &c.
The corolla Is the blossom; its parts are called petals; it is commonly gay in colour; its office is supposed to be to attract insects.
The stamens are within the corolla; each consists of a stalk, and a head, or anther, on or in which is the powder called pollen.
The pistil occupies the centre of the flower, the lowest part of which is the ovary, the middle part the style, and the upper part the stigma; this organ is differently shaped in different plants.
The ovary is the seed-vessel in an immature state.
Most plants have all the preceding organs, but many are destitute of one or other of them.
When insects visit flowers they are in search of honey; in this search they convey the pollen to the stigma, and thus fructify the seed.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION Ill.
Lesson 86. Ferns, Mosses, Fungi.
Forms of vegetable life may be found both on land and in water where nothing else is seen but decay and stagnation.
Sea-weeds and the green slimy vegetation that grows upon stones in stagnant water, are called algae, they are the lowest forms of vegetable life. Some kinds of sea-weeds are prepared for food; kelp is burnt sea-weed, it is used in the manufacture of soda, soap, and glass. Many of the poor inhabitants of the coasts of Scotland and Ireland find the making of kelp a profitable occupation. Some of the sea-weeds have knobs on their surface; these are air-bladders, by which they are enabled to float on the waves.
The fungi comprehend not only mushrooms, truffles, morels, and toadstools, but also smut, which is found in wheat; mildew, which appears on linen and on paper; mould, which is found in damp closets; blight, which shows itself on the leaves and blossoms of trees; rust, a disease of grain; and dry rot, which is often found in timber. A fungus, called German tinder, readily takes fire from a spark; another, the puff-ball, is used to stupify bees when their honeycombs are taken.
Lichens grow on tombstones, on old walls, and on decaying trees. Several species of the lichen are useful; some kinds are used in dyeing; one yields the blue pigment called litmus. The reindeer lichen contains much nutriment.
Mosses grow in moist and shady places, on old walls, in woods, and among heather; they are the abodes of innumerable insects; one kind, the hair-moss of Lapland, furnishes that people with bedding. Mosses are one of the chief materials used by the smaller birds to line their nests.
Ferns grow on heaths, in woods, and some among rocks. The ashes of ferns are used in the manufacture of glass; mixed with water these ashes are made into ash-balls, and are used in the scouring of linen. Sago is prepared from the pith of a palm-like fern, which gross wild in the East Indies.
CRYPTOGAMIC PLANTS, OR ACROGENS.
Sea-weeds or algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, ferns All these are cryptogamic plants, and belong to the third great division of the vegetable kingdom that of acrogens; they have no flowers, and, except the ferns, they have neither leaves nor stems. The algals live in water, salt or fresh, and are nourished there; they have no distinction of leaf and stem, and they are also destitute of flowers; the delicate and brilliant sea-weeds belong to this class, as well as the tough and leathery kinds. The fungi comprehend, as well as mushrooms, a vast number of microscopic plants; they are found in all countries, and in all situations. Lichens are most abundant in climates which are moist and cool; but they are found in all countries; they take possession of the surface of stones, wood, walls, &c., and draw their food from the atmosphere. Mosses never exceed a few inches in height; some of them, called urn-mosses, have their fructifying part shaped like an urn with a lid to it. Ferns, have a distinct stem and leaves; they are generally low growing and spreading, and have a bold and handsome foliage Lindley.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 86.
Decay from de, and cado, to fall; to fail, to fail away.
Stagnation from stagnum, a pool of standing water; hence stagno, to be without a flowing motion.
alga from alga, seaweed; these plants are described as having their leaf, stem, and root all one.
Kelp (Ar. and Pers.) several of the algae called fuci from phukos (Gr.), seaweed, are burnt for kelp, especially the seaweed called the bladder fucus.
Soda barilla ashes, prepared in Spain, and formerly imported in large quantities, were used in making soda, soap glass, &c.
Soap - formerly written sope, from sapo; usually composed of an alkali, as soda, or potash, and fatty matter. We have several kinds of soap white, curd, yellow, mottled, and soft soap.
Glass composed of silex, or flint, or sea sand, and an alkali, as barilla, kelp, pearl-ash, &c.
Fungi from fungus, deduced from fundo, to pour, because they pour themselves forth, or spread widely; they exhale carbonic acid gas, ad absorb oxygen; thus they vitiate the air.
Mushrooms sometimes eaten, also used in making sauces for food.
Truffles indigenous; found a few inches under ground; both dogs and pigs are trained to seek them by their scent.
Morels found in woods and orchards; employed in cooking, both fresh and dried.
Toadstools poisonous fungi, having the appearance of mushrooms.
dry rot the kyanizing of timber saves it from dry rot, by preventing the growth of fungi.
German tinder (amadou) prepared from a fungi called boletus, which grows on the trunks of old trees; it is boiled in a strong solution of nitre, to cause it to kindle readily.
Puffball the fine dust consists of germs of future plants; a single puffball has been found to contain 10,000,000.
Dyeing as the cudbear, or archil, used in dyeing violet, purple, and crimson.
reindeer lichen or Iceland moss, which, boiled to a jelly, supplies food for man, as well as for the reindeer.
Mosses useful in preserving the roots of trees from cold during winter, and in shielding them from heat in summer.
Heather composed of heaths, also called ling; it is made into brooms, or besoms.
Ferns brake or bracken; they afford a resting-place for the tired deer.
Ashes the substances usually contained in the ashes of land plants are potash, soda, lime, and magnesia.
Glass - flint glass is made of sand, red-lead, and pearl-ashes; plate glass, of sand, sub-carbonate of soda, and a little lime; crown glass, of sand, kelp, and soda; and bottle glass, of river sand, and the waste of soap boilers.
Sago the sago-palm grows wild in the woods. When the native has satisfied himself by boring a bole in the trunk, that the pith is ripe, the trunk is cut down; the pith is scraped out, mixed with water and strained, and the sago is ready for use. A tree commonly yields 300 to 600lbs. Thus a man goes into the wood, and cuts his bread as we hew our firewood. SCHOUW.
QUESTIONS 86.
Are forms or vegetable life general?
What are seaweeds called?
Tell me some of the uses of the algae.
In what countries do many of the poor find employment in making kelp?
Give examples of fungi.
What is German tinder?
Which of the fungi is used to stupify bees?
Where are lichens found?
Which species Is of use to the Laplander?
Where do mosses flourish?
What is stated of the hair moss of Lapland?
Where do ferns grow?
For what are they used?
Whence is sago obtained?
How due the native of its country proceed to procure food from the sago-palm?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What plants are called acrogens?
What great division of the vegetable kingdom do they form?
Of what ordinary part of plants are they all deficient?
Of what are they all also deficient, except the ferns?
What plants are comprised under the term algals?
What kinds are comprehended under that of fungi?
Where are lichens most abundant?
Where are they found?
Whence do they draw their support?
What is said of mosses?
What is there curious in the urn-mosses?
How are ferns different to other acrogens?
What is their general appearance?
Bring with you to school a few specimens of mosses, lichens, and ferns, and we will examine them.
SECTION XI. 0F PLANTS.
In addition to the principal articles of food afforded to human beings and to animals by the grasses and grain, the garden vegetables and fruits, many of the luxuries of life are the productions of plants, among which are tea, coffee, cocoa, and chocolate, all the spices, sugar, and treacle. Arrowroot, sago, and tapioca, are also delicate preparations of food obtained from plants.
There are some productions of the vegetable world which render a variety of important services to the inhabitants of the countries in which they flourish. During eight months of every year the bread fruit tree affords the chief sustenance to the South Sea Islanders. They have only to climb the tree and gather the fruit, and it is at once ready for use. Besides the use of the fruit as food, a cloth is fabricated of the bark, the leaves are converted into towels and wrappers, and houses and canoes are made of the wood.
The date-palm is another tree, every part of which is converted to some useful purpose. A considerable proportion of the inhabitants of Egypt, Arabia, and Persia subsist almost entirely on its fruit. It is the tree and fruit of the deserts. The fruit, when fully ripened, yields a delicious syrup, which is used for preserving this and other fruits. The stalks, softened by boiling, are used for cattle. The conical tuft in the centre, called the cabbage, is an agreeable esculent, in flavour resembling chestnut; the fibrous parts of the tree are made into ropes, baskets, and mats; the inner fibrous bark of the trunk is made into cordage and rigging for the vessels that navigate the Red sea, and huts and tents are made of the trunk itself.
FOOD PLANTS OF DIFFERENT CLIMATES.
principal articles of food, &c. Some nations are so geographically situated that they cannot have wheat; but if in a tropical country they may have maize or rice, and if in a frigid climate, barley or oats. The principal food-plant of one large district is the date; of another, the cocoa-nut; of another, the bread-fruit; the plantain, the tea, the coffee, the vine, and the orange, are characteristic plants of other districts of the earth. Thus, by the wise and bountiful arrangements of Providence, all the human race are supplied with the food best suited for their respective climates, and for their bodily constitution, as affected by their climate. Every production of nature is good; if anything is noxious, we may be sure that in our ignorance we have not applied it to its proper use. Hence, what; preserves the life of one animal may occasion the death of another, and the same plant which in a large quantity may cause illness, or even death, in a smaller proportion may prove highly salutary. Hemlock is a dangerous poison, yet in the hands of those who know its properties, and how to prepare and administer it, it is a valuable medicine.
EXPLANATIONS AND LESSONS.
LESSON 87.
tea it is generally understood that there are two species of the tea shrub; it is indigenous only in China; it is largely grown in Japan, and has lately been introduced into Assam. The consumption in Great Britain and Ireland is about 36,000,000 lbs. annually.
Coffee Arabia, Brazil, Java, the West Indies, and Ceylon are the chief coffee growing countries. The seed does not grow in a pod, hut in a pulpy fruit, each containing two seeds. Its consumption in Great Britain and Ireland is about 30,000,000 lbs. annually.
chocolate consists of the seeds of the cacao plant reduced to a paste, and mixed with sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, &c.
Sugar the sugar cane is cultivated in all parts of the globe that are within the tropics. 360,000,000 lbs. of sugar are consumed annually in the British Islands. Sugar is obtained in North America from the sugar-maple, and in France from beet-root. The field of Waterloo is now studded with manufactories of beet-root sugar.
Treacle the syrup that subsides in the boiling of sugar; see Notes 27.
Tapioca prepared from the root of a poisonous plant called the bitter cassava, or manioc root. The preparation frees it from its injurious properties, and leaves the very nutritive, farinaceous substance called tapioca.
bread-fruit - the tree is beautiful, and richly foliaged; it bears fresh fruits, which are successively ripening for eight months of the year: these fruits when cooked taste like wheaten bread. It is estimated that three trees yield enough food for one human being.
date-palm the region of this tree is from the northern coast of Africa to the Great Desert. This arid district is the land of dates: the fresh fruit yields much nutriment,. The tree rises to the height of sixty feet. The clusters of dates are sometimes five fact in length, and when ripe they are of a bright gold colour, over which the summit of the tree is crowned with a beautiful foliage. It is found in other hot parts of Africa and Asia, frequently near streams. To this tree the psalmist alludes by saying, The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree.
QUESTIONS 87.
Are any of the luxuries of life obtained from plants?
Mention some of them.
Which are the tea-growing countries?
How much tea do we import yearly?
Which are the coffee countries?
How is the seed produced?
Tell me how sugar is prepared.
From what plant is tapioca procured?
Describe the bread-fruit tree.
To what purposes are the various parts of the tree applied?
Which is the region of the date-palm?
Describe the tree and its fruit.
How does the psalmist allude to this beautiful and useful tree?
Enumerate some of the uses to which the products of the date-palm are applied?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What grains will grow in a tropical country which is too hot for wheat?
What grains will a frigid climate produce which is too cold for wheat?
Where is the date the principal food-plant?
Where the cocoa-nut the bread-fruit - the plantain?
In what countries are the tea, the coffee, the vine, and the orange respectively produced?
What beneficent arrangement of Providence do we here perceive?
Some of the productions of nature re noxious Are they created for the purpose of doing injury?
When noxious effects are produced what may we usually conclude?
What do we know respecting some medicinal plants?
What knowledge then appears necessary to a medical practitioner?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 88. Uses of Plants. (Continued.)
The cocoa-nut tree is another of those vegetable productions which supplies numerous wants to the native population of many tropical countries. The kernel is considered nutritious food, the liquid within it is a refreshing beverage, the shell is a useful household vessel: the fibrous husk surrounding the shell is made into mats and cordage; and oil is expressed from the kernel. Cabins for the poorer natives and large houses are constructed from this tree; the trunk when split supplies rafters; the leaves when plaited make roofs and walls which are impervious to rain. There is an old remark, that it is possible to build vessels, fit them for the sea, and freight them, exclusively from the materials afforded by the cocoa palm.
The papaw tree affords several distinct benefits; its fruit is preserved in sugar, its leaves are used as soap, and its stem is converted into water-pipes.
The plantain and banana, which are nearly the same, are instances of extraordinary fruitfulness; they are found in the tropical countries of Asia, Africa, and America; they are there what the cornplants are in temperate climates. The fruit is sweet and sugary; it is preserved like the fig by being dried in the sun.
The cabbage palm is also a tropical tree; the cabbage is concealed within the branches at the top of the trunk; it is white, two or three feet long, as thick as a mans arm, and cylindrical. When eaten raw it resembles the almond in flavour, but it is more tender and delicious; it is, how ever, usually boiled. The fibrous part of the leaves is spun into cordage; of the pith a kind of sago is manufactured; of the trunks water pipes and gutters are made.
The cocoa of the grocer is the seed of the cacao plant, cultivated chiefly in central America.
THE BREAD-FRUIT. THE BANANA. CACAO, OR COCOA.
Bread-fruit tree (87) Captain Cook says, If an inhabitant of the South Sea has planted ten bread-fruit trees during his life, he has fulfilled his duty towards his family as completely as a farmer among us, who has every year ploughed and sown, reaped and threshed; nay, he has not only provided bread for his own lifetime, but left his children a capital in the trees.
the plantain and banana These plants produce on the same area, one hundred and thirty-three times as much food as wheat; hence a small garden round the natives hut is sufficient to feed a family. Schouws Earth, Plants, and Man.
cacao plant The chocolate beans or seeds are produced by a species of evergreen tree; they lie inside a fruit something like a cucumber, about five inches long, which contains from twenty to thirty beans. The common cocoa of the shops consists of these roasted beans, ground to powder, and sometimes prepared with spicy ingredients. It is the cheapest of all food; its consumption in the United Kingdom is about 3,000,000 lbs. annually. Simmonds's Commercial Products.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 88.
Cocoa-nut - the tree is found in all tropical countries, on the margin of seas, and on reefs and sand-banks; it grows quite erect, to the height of from 60 to 90 feet. Good trees yield from 30 to 50 nuts yearly. It is extensively cultivated; in Ceylon alone, about the year 1820, not fewer than 10,000,000 grew on the south-west extremity of the island. Its products are valuable for many purposes besides that mentioned in the lesson.
Tropical from trepo (Gr.), to turn, is derived tropos (Gr.), a turning; whence tropics, two circles, parallel to the equator, and so called because they pass through the solstitial points, from which the sun appears to turn again and take a contrary direction; hence tropical, relating to the tropics.
kernel the fruit is wholesome, the milk contained in it forms the principal food of the poorer people in districts where the cocoa-nut tree grows.
papaw tree this remarkable tree shoots up with a simple trunk, to the height of from 12 to20 feet. The natives of those parts of South America where it grows eat the unripe fruit when boiled as a vegetable. Animals fed upon its fruit, when killed for food are peculiarly tender. The juice is used as a cosmetic and as medicine.
plantain a stately herbaceous plant which flourishes and bears fruit only in a rich and luxuriant soil, its fruit is used both raw and dressed; in some cases the plantain is the sole support of an Indian family.
Banana a dwarf species of plantain; root perennial, shoots annual; it rises to the height of 15 or 20 feet. Fruit about the size of a cucumber. The same ground which, in wheat, would sustain two persons, will afford food for more than forty under the banana.
cabbage-palm - abounds in the hilly districts of Jamaica; it attains the height of from 120 to 200 feet, while the diameter of its trunk is not more than seven inches. Owing to the great hardness of its wood, and the ease with which the pith is removed, simply by exposure to the air after being felled, it is found of great value. When buried in the earth it becomes nearly as hard as iron.
cacao plant the tree grow to the height of about 20 feet; the seeds are contained in oval pointed pods, some pods yielding a hundred, others not more than twenty seeds. When the seeds have been roasted they are reduced to a paste and mixed with sugar, and sometimes flavoured with vanilla, an aromatic plant of South America. The cacao plant grows wild in Brazil, the Caraccas, Guayaquil, and the other West India Islands; it is also cultivated.
QUESTIONS 88.
Is the cocoa-nut tree of much value?
Mention the several uses to which its parts are applied.
In what island does it flourish greatly?
What old remark is very true as to the cocoa-palm?
Mention some of the benefits derived from the papaw tree.
Where are the plantain and the banana found?
What is the difference between these two plants?
Instance their extraordinary fruitfulness.
Where is the cabbage-palm very abundant?
Give some description of this tree.
What is the cocoa of the grocer?
Give some account of its growth.
What is its proper name?
How is cocoa prepared for sale?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Where does the bread-fruit tree grow?
Can you tell me when Captain Cook visited these islands?
At which of them did he meet his death?
What does he say of the prolific character of this tree?
What is the productiveness of the plantain and banana relatively to wheat?
How is this productive character exemplified?
What is stated in the notes to Lesson 18 as to the constituent parts of the plantain?
What results from the deficiency of nutriment in this vegetable?
What is stated respecting the chocolate bean?
What is said about its cheapness?
What quantity is consumed in this Kingdom?
SECTION XI. OF PLANTS.
Lesson 89. Parts of Vegetables.
The parts of a plant are the roots, the stem, the leaves, the blossoms, and the seeds. Roots are of different forms; some are tapering, as the carrot; others branched and spreading like those of the elm; others consist entirely of fibres, as the pansy; some are horizontal, as the pine. Horizontal roots that push up stems, as the mint and couch-grass, are called creeping roots.
The stems of plants vary as well as their roots: some are woody, as those of trees; others are succulent, as the cactus and the aloe; others are pithy, as the rush and elder; others are hollow, as the hemlock and fennel; some are clasping, as the ivy; others are climbing, as the pea; some are twining, as the kidney bean; and others jointed, as the wheat and bamboo.
Leaves have a variety of shapes; they are heart-shaped, kidney-shaped, hand-shaped; indented, straight, notched, rounded; separate, or united; single, in pairs, or in threes; their surfaces are soft, rough, smooth, shining, thorny, stinging, hairy, hoary, viscid, some are odorous. The foliage of a plant often constitutes its beauty.
Blossoms are always interesting, from their diversity of shape, of colour, and of fragrance; they appear at different seasons of the year in different plants; and open at various times of the day. Some open at dawn and close at noon; others open at noon and close at night; some open and close repeatedly; others, when once closed, never open again; a few kinds expand when the atmosphere is dry, and close on the approach of rain.
The seeds of some plants are enclosed in a hard shell, in others the shell is covered by a pulpy fruit; in others in a glutinous syrup, in others in a firm fleshy substance: some are contained in pods, others in husks.
USES OF LEAVES FOR DRAWING LESSONS.
leaves have a variety of shapes In the Educational Exhibition, at St. Martins Hall, there was a collection of dried leaves of forest trees, in cheap frames. Such collections would answer many useful purposes in schools: by their aid, the names of trees would be learned, so that a tree might be known by its leaf; they would also be useful as drawing lessons, both for form and colour. The angular leaves of the sycamore and plane, the rounded fig-leaf, the deeply-indented leaf of the oak, the palmated leaves of the passion-flower and the horse-chestnut, as well as many others, would afford excellent examples for drawing lessons; and in copying their forms, the smaller characteristics of the leaves would be noticed. Drummond's First Steps to Botany, and Lindley's School Botany, furnish descriptions, with the wood-cuts of numerous leaves. Leaves gathered late in autumn would show the gradations and varieties of autumnal tints, and would afford a more advanced exercise in colour than the varieties of green that the leaves present in spring.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 89.
roots probably from writhian (A.S.), to grow.
stem- from stemne (A.S.), a trunk.
blossom from blosma, blosmian (AS.), to bloom, or burst forth with flowers.
seeds from sawan (A.S.), to sow or spread abroad.
couch-grass a troublesome weed to the agriculturist; almost any portion of the root will grow, and it is so sharp and wiry that it will pierce through a potato.
woody from wudu (A.S.), wood, a forest, a tree.
Succulent from succulentus, full of sap.
Cactus the joints of the stem are sometimes, but wrongly, called leaves. One of the species forms the chief food of the cochineal insect.
aloe this plant supplies one of our most valuable drugs.
bamboo one of the tree-like grasses, and though not used as food it is one of the most important plants of India. Houses, furniture, and many domestic utensils are made from it. In China the bamboo keeps the empire in awe; thousands are constantly employed in the act of flagellation.
heart-shaped as the water-lily and lime tree.
kidney-shaped as the ground ivy.
hand-shaped as the horse-chestnut and passion-flower.
Indented from endenter (Fr.), to snip or notch, deduced from dens, dentis (Lat.), a tooth; as the elm and chestnut.
Straight as the poplar.
Notched as the dandelion (dent-de-lion, Fr.), from its resemblance to the teeth of a lion.
Rounded as the fig.
Separate as the nasturtium.
United as the rose.
Single as the willow.
In pairs as the phillyrea.
in threes as the strawberry.
Soft as the mullein.
Rough as the hollyhock.
Smooth as the plane tree.
Shining as the laurel.
Thorny as the holly.
Stinging as the nettle.
Hairy as the sunflower.
Hoary as the poppy.
Viscid from ixos (Gr.), bird-lime; tenacious, adhesive; as the gum-cistus.
odorousas the mint.
dawn as the goats beard, which has the name, John-go-to-bed-at-noon.
rain - as the pimpernel, called the poor mans weather glass, and the daisy.
Shell as the nuts.
Pulpy - as plums, apricots, &c.
Syrup as the gooseberry, currant, and grape.
Fleshy as the apple and pear.
pods as peas and beans.
Husks as wheat and other grains.
QUESTIONS 89.
What are the chief parts of plants?
Are all roots of the same form?
Give examples of different forms.
Is there any variety in the stems of plants?
Give examples of these varieties.
Mention some of the various shapes of leaves.
Furnish examples of each of these shapes.
In what does the beauty of a plant sometimes consist?
What renders blossoms interesting?
Do they all appear at one season?
Do they all open at the same hour?
Exemplify the opening and closing of flowers.
Mention some plants the names of which indicate their habits or their uses.
Why do some flowers close soon after they have expanded?
How are the seeds of plants protected?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Tell me the names of the trees you are best acquainted with.
Describe the leaf of the oak, or make a drawing of it
Is this leaf anything like the leaf of the sycamore?
Can any one here draw me the laurel leaf?
The rose has a beautiful leaf Who can draw it? or a spray representing three leaves?
Try to think of the shapes of various leaves Who can draw the leaf of the sycamore?
The horse chestnut has a handsome compound leaf, generally shaped like seven leaves united on one stem let some one attempt to draw that leaf.
When do leaves change their colours?
What change next occurs to them?
Some trees do not shed their leaves What are they called?
Tell me some of their names.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 90. Growth of Vegetables.
The roots of plants are the organs by which they derive nourishment; they are constantly shooting into new portions of soil, in which they find nutritious matter. The roots extend as far as the branches, the rain that falls upon trees drops from the tree at those parts where it will penetrate into the earth and moisten the extremities of the roots. The leaves and stems of plants also absorb moisture. The temperature of leaves is lower by night than during the day, and in hot climates dew is deposited on their surface which nourishes the plants.
The fungi will grow in the dark, but heat, air, moisture, and light, are generally requisite to sustain vegetable life. Heat or cold, dryness or moisture in excess, are unfavourable to most plants. The extreme cold of Lapland is, however, favourable to some mosses, and the extreme heat of the spice islands to the aromatic plants that will grow only there. In the tropical climates vegetation is luxuriant and continuous; in the polar climates it is vigorous only during the short summer, and stunted the remainder of the year.
A seed being sown sends forth two shoots, one upwards to form the stem, the other downwards to form the root. When the stem reaches the open air the leaflets expand the stem grows higher and stronger the roots increase the flower-buds and the corolla appear. Within the petals of the flowers are the small filaments called stamens, surrounded by anthers, which are covered with a mealy powder called pollenthis dust is supposed to be the principal agent in fertilizing the seed. The seed is the last production of the mature plant.
HOW PLANTS ARE MULTIPLIED
a seed being sown New plants are raised from seeds, but many plants may be multiplied in various ways. Entire plants with leaves and roots may be taken from the parent plants, in autumn or spring this refers to fibrous-rooted plants. Small slips or cuttings, taken from the parent plant when the wood is not very tender, and close below a joint, will grow, if shaded from the sun for a few days after planting. This mode of propagation is applicable to many shrubs and trees, to pansies, pinks, wall-flowers, &c. Plants are also multiplied by layers; in this operation a stem is drawn to the earth, covered at a joint with soil, and pegged down with a wooden hook. After the layers are rooted, they may be cut off the parent stem and planted out. Another common method of dividing plants is by suckers, or shoots thrown up from the roots, with a part of the parent root attached. Tuberous roots are divided, as potatoes and dahlias, each division having one or more eyes or stolons in It. Tulips and other bulbous plants are increased by planting out the separate young bulb. Budding, grafting, &c., are practised by nurserymen.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 90.
roots they absorb nutriment from the air, and from the soil, and they excrete juices which they have formed within themselves. As plants enlarge, a corresponding extension of the root takes place for two purposes 1st, for increasing the supply of nourishment: and 2ndly, for maintaining the stability of the plant.
Nutriment from nutrio, nutrivi, nutritum, to nourish; one of the chief sources of nutriment is the carbon in the atmosphere, which the plant is continually withdrawing thence, and converting into the material of its own solid structure.
Stems are of three kinds: 1. Exogens, or all those plants which have pith in the centre, then a ring of wood, then a covering of bark outside, as trees and shrubs generally. 2. Endogens, which show no distinction of pith, wood, and bark, but a confused mass of pithy substance, as most herbaceous plants. 3. Acrogens, or flower-less plants, as the tree ferns and other cryptogamia.
dew atmospheric moisture condensed and deposited in the form of drops. The cause of dew may be thus explained: during the day the earth imbibes much of the solar heat, which it yields in the coldness of the night, and which is condensed with the vapours held in solution near the earths surface, in the form of minute watery particles upon the leaves of plants and other objects.
Lapland for three-fourths of the year the surface of the country is covered with snow; and from November to March the frost is intense.
luxuriantfrom luxuria, deduced from luxus, loose, lavish, exuberant, abundant.
Stunted from stintan (A.S.), to stop; that is, (he growth of anything.
flowers the part of the plant which leads to its multiplication by seed.
petal from petalon (Gr.), a leaf; the parts of the flower more or less coloured; yellow in the daffodil, white in the snow-drop, &c.
filaments or threads from filum, a thread.
stamens from stamia (Gr.), deduced from istemi, to stand; that which supports; they are within the corolla.
anther from anthos (Gr.), a flower; the head of the stamen, attached to the filament.
pollen or farina; generally minute yellow bodies of a globular form.
Seed the self-produced means of propagation, according to the statement in Genesis, "The herb yielding seed after its kind.. . . whose seed is in itself."
QUESTIONS 90.
Through what organs is much nourishment conveyed to plants?
In what manner do the roots obtain the n nourishment?
What beautiful adaptation to the wants of the tree and the offices of the root is seen in the extension of the branches?
Do the roots alone absorb nutriment?
How does the temperature of the leaves vary?
How is dew serviceable to plants?
Explain the cause of dew.
What is there peculiar in the growth of fungi?
What requisites are generally necessary to sustain vegetable life?
Is an excess of any of these requisites unfavourable?
To what plants is the excessive cold of Lapland favourable?
To what plants is the extreme heat of the Spice Islands necessary?
What difference exists in the vegetation of the tropics, and in that of the poles?
Describe the gradual and perfect growth of a plant From its seed.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT N0TES.
By what means are new plants raised?
Old plants are multiplied differently How do we proceed with those which have fibrous roots?
Tell me another method of increasing plants from the parent plant.
What precaution should be taken with new cuttings?
To what plants is this mode applicable?
Describe the operation of increasing plants by layers.
When may the layers be planted out as separate plants?
Some plants send up suckers how can these be made into distinct plant?
Potatoes are tubers how are they made into sets?
How can the stock of bulbous plants be increased?
What more difficult operations are practised by gardeners and nurserymen for augmenting their stock of plants?
SECTION XII. OF THE EARTH.
The earth is not a flat, extended plain, as it appears, but a globe. Its dimensions are so great, that if a railway carriage could go from one side to the opposite side, through its centre, at the rate of fifty miles an hour, it must travel day and night for nearly seven days.
Nearly three-fourths of the surface of the earth is water, and about one-fourth is land. The surface of the land is irregular in height, but the irregularities do not alter its globular shape. We see only small portions at once, and we find some parts level, other parts low, and other parts high; these are the plains, the valleys, and the mountains.
The solid matter of the earths surface is composed of layers or beds of soil, gravel, clay, freestone, sand, coals, and ores of metals. The hardest rocks are below these various earths and minerals, though in some parts they have been forced upwards to the surface, forming granite mountains.
The great natural divisions of the earth are the continents and oceans. The continents are intersected by seas, large rivers, chains of high mountains, and extensive deserts; the lesser divisions are the lower mountains and the smaller rivers which intersect countries. These divisions mark the limits or boundaries of kingdoms, people, and nations.
The minor divisions of countries are called provinces, counties, and parishes; these contain cities, towns, boroughs, villages, and hamlets. In some districts are large farms, hop-yards, orchards, moors, forests, fens; in others quarries and mines. In every populous country there are numerous roads and canals, and in many there are railroads, by which people and merchandise are conveyed from one part to another.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS.
the solid matter of the earths surface Granite, the lowest of all the rocks, is the firm foundation on which the other kinds of solid matter rest; its depth is unknown, but granite also forms the summits of the loftiest mountains. The slaty rocks, above the granite, are in some districts the depositories of tin, copper, lead, gold, and silver. Other rocks consist of limestone and sandstone, among which fossil fishes and shells are found. Above the limestone are the coal-measures, many of which are interspersed with layers of ironstone. In these formations fossil plants are met with. There is another kind of sandstone, and also of limestone above the coals, and strata of has, marls, clays, and chalk. These are called the oolite* formation; it abounds with fossils of sea-shells, footmarks of huge frogs and birds, also in saurians, fish, insects, corals, and sponges. Above these are clays, sand, and gravel of various kinds, which contain the remains of extinct animals, and, above them, the recent soil, composed of earthy matter and decomposed portions of plants and animals.
* From oon, egg, and lithos, stone; egg-1ike globules of limestone.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 91.
fifty miles in seven days there are 188 hours, which multiplied by 50, will give 8,400.
nearly three-fourths the surface of the earth contains about 197,000,000 square miles; of these, 145,500,000 are covered with water, and 51,500,000 consist of dry land.
Irregularities they are so trifling in comparison with the vast size of the earth, as to be compared to a grain of sand on a large globe.
plains some of these are mountain plains called table-lands or plateaus, others are lowland plains, steppes, llanos, silvas, pampas, &c.
mountains which are denominated the skeleton of the earth.
solid matter the principal earths are silica, limestone, and alumina.
layers or beds hence called stratified formations, from stratum, a layer or bed. According to the observations of geologists, these layers, while subject to occasional interruptions, follow a pretty uniform relative position in the matter of which the earths superficial crust is composed.
Gravel small fragments of stone which have been imbedded in the earth, or drifted over its surface by water.
Clay a mixture of certain earths capable of being made plastic by water, as pipe-clay, potters-clay, brick-clay.
free-stone called also sandstone, because it consists of an aggregation of sand into a solid mass.
Sand small granular portions of various rocks, the principal being quartz or flint. Sands are red, white, gray, black yellow, according to the rocks whence they were disintegrated.
Coals generally found on the old red sandstone formation. Coal is found in beds, from a few inches to twenty feet, and even to ten yards thick. Coal is sometimes found forced to the surface; this is called outcropping.
Ores whence metals are obtained.
Hardest including granite, porphyry, serpentine, basalt, quartz, gneiss.
forced up - these are called rocks of eruption and are supposed to have
been forced up from the centre of the earth in a fluid or semi-fluid state. They are called igneous, volcanic, plutonic, and unstratified rocks.
granite mountains granite rock is supposed to form one vast bed, underlying all the other rocks..
continents so called because they contain or enclose several countries.
Oceans the great waters of the earth are not separated by distinct boundaries, but by imaginary divisions. See Notes 93.
Seas the lesser or more contracted portions of the great waters.
Provinces originally applied to a distant conquered country, now applied to districts under subordinate rule.
Counties Constantine, at his accession, gave the title coines to ten of his provincial governors; and Charlemagne retained the title, giving it to both military and civil officers. The division of England into counties is attributed to King Alfred.
Parishes said to be from para, near, and oikos (Gr), a house. A division of an inhabited country committed, says Blackstone, to the charge of one parson or vicar.
QUESTIONS 91.
What is the form of the earth?
How can you show that its dimensions are great?
Does its surface exhibit equal proportions of water and land?
Whet features constitute the irregularity of the earth's surface?
Of what materials is the solid part of its surface composed?
Where are the hardest rocks found?
Where are they found above the other strata?
Which are the great divisions of the earth?
What are the principal features of continents?
Mention the lesser divisions.
Tell me some of their characteristics.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Which is the lowest of the rocks and the foundation of all others?
It is also the loftiest of the rocks how is this accounted for?
What rocks lie on the granite?
Of what metals are these rocks the depositories in some districts?
0f what kinds of Stone do other rocks consist?
What fossils are found among them?
And what may we therefore infer?
Where are the coal-measures?
With what useful ore are they interspersed?
What fossils are found in these strata?
What strata are above the coal?
What is the formation called?
What petrifactions are found in it?
What layers come next to these in ascending from the granite?
Of what substances is soil composed?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Extensive tracts of level land are called plains, although they generally have an undulating surface. in Russia they are called steppes, and over them the eye may range many miles without meeting a hill; in North America such plains are called prairies, and in South America pampas.
The elevations on the surface of the earth are hills or mountains; if many mountains unite at their base they are called a chain of mountain. There are mountains in some parts of the earth that throw out burning ashes and lava, these are called volcanoes. The mountains are the sources of all springs and rivers, and in many of them the ores of metals are found. Sometimes there are several chains of mountains, with extensive hollow tracts between them; these hollows are called valleys. Some mountains lift up their bare summits high in the air, others are constantly covered with snow; some are covered with plants, others furnish pasture for thousands of sheep. Mountains shield the valleys and plains from cold winds; on their warm slopes the grape, the olive, and other fruits flourish.
The largest divisions of land are called continents. Europe, Asia, and Africa are all united; they form one continent. North and South America form the other continent. Sometimes smaller divisions of land are called continents, as the continent of Europe. Tracts of land which are entirely surrounded with water are islands. There are many caverns and mines in the earth, some of which are natural, as the Cave of Staffa, on the coast of Scotland; others have been hewn out by man for the purpose of procuring stone and ores of metals. Manufacturing towns are generally in the vicinity of mines that produce metallic ores and coals. There are few manufacturing towns in agricultural districts.
STEPPES, PRAIRIES, LLANOS, PAMPAS, SILVAS, MOUNTAINS.
extensive tracts of level land The steppes of Russia consist of pasture land, mingled with woods, barren sands, lakes, pools, and streams of salt and bitter waters..
The prairies of North America are of three kinds 1st, heathy, or bushy, with springs, and covered with small shrubs and grape-vines; 2ndly, dry or rolling prairies, destitute of water, and of all vegetation, except grass; 3rdly, wet prairies, covered with tall rank grass, the soil being deep and fertile, abounding with pools.
The llanos of the Orinoco form an immense plain of grass, twice as large as France, and as flat as the surface of the ocean.
The pampas of south America form a horizontal surface of nearly 1,000 miles, from the Atlantic to the Andes.
The silvas are the forest-covered plains of the Amazon and Maranon; their area is half as large as Europe.
chains of mountains Mountains are sometimes disposed in groups, sometimes in chains, and sometimes they radiate from a centre.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 92.
Tracts from tractatus, drawn out.
Plains from planus, that which is smooth, or of even surface.
undulating from unda, a wave; in curved lines, like waves.
steppes the steppes of Russia are covered with a layer of thick humus, i.e., decomposed vegetable remains, which gives fertility to them; some of them abound in marshy hollows and brine pools; others are clothed with dense forests, and abound in game and fur-bearing animals. Nine-tenths of the population of Russia are engaged in agriculture.
Prairies also called savannahs; some are heathy or bushy, others dry and undulating, and, others moist and covered with rank grass. Many of these tracts of land are being brought under cultivation.
Pampas this term signifies flats; they are generally treeless plains; some of them possess a very luxuriant vegetation; they extend, with interruptions, throughout South America.
Miles from mille, a thousand; being, as computed by the Romans (mille passus) a thousand paces.
Elevations from elevo, elevare, to raise, to lift or heave up.
chains of mountains the great mountain ridge which sweeps across Asia and Europe includes the mountain ranges of Stanovoi, Ald an, Yablonoi, Altai, Thian Shan, Himalaya, Hindoo Koosh, Elburz, Armenia, Taurus, Caucasus, Balkan, Carpathia, Alps, Apennincs, Pyrenees, and Cantabria, ending with Cape Finisterre.
Mountains the highest in the British Isles is Ben Nevis; the highest in Europe, the Alps; the highest in the world, Kunchinginga.
Volcanoes so called because the fabled Vulan is represented as causing their fires when forging Joves thunderbolts; e.g., Mount Etna, Mount Vesuvius, and Mount Popocatapetl.
sources of springs the water-clouds being broken by the towering summits of mountains, burst, and deposit their contents upon their sides, which filtrate through the earth, and, uniting in subterranean streams, at length obtain vent in a source, or spring, from which the waters flow onward, in streams and rivers, towards the sea.
ores of metals as in the Ural mountains, whence various metals are obtained.
Covered with snow - as mount Ararat, mount Blanc, mount St. Bernard, and the Orizava in Mexico.
Grape hillsides are considered as the best sites; these were the situations of the most noted ancient vineyards, as the sides of Vesuvios, the Massie, the Setine, Caecuban, Surrentine, and Falernian hills.
Olive - as the mount of Olives, in Jadea. Olives are abundant on the coast of the Mediterranean, and are cultivated in many parts of the adjacent hilly country.
Staffa a small island on the western coast of Scotland, about three miles from Ionia, and three, west of Mull. The cave is known as Fingals Cave.
Vicinity from vicus, a street, is derived vicinitas, neighbourhood, whence vicinity; neighbourhood, the place adjoining.
QUESTIONS 92.
What are plains? Are they perfectly level?
What are the level districts in Russia called?
What are prairies?
What are the different characteristics of prairies 7
Describe the pampas.
What is a chain of mountains?
Which is the highest range in Europe?
What are volcanoes?
Where do rivers originate?
What arc valleys?
Describe one of the different classes of mountains and their uses.
What large divisions of the earth are comprised in the Eastern Continent?
What are those of the Western Continent?
Is the term contlnenr confined only too such great divisions?
What are islands?
Are there not natural caverns?
Where are manufacturing towns generally built?
Where are such towns few in number?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How are the steppes of Russia described?
Which is the country of prairies ?
What are the characteristics of the three kinds of prairies?
In what country are the plains called llanos?
How are the llanos of the Orinoco described?
Where are the pampas?
What is their extent?
Where are the silvas? What Is their extent?
In what various ways are mountains disposed?
What change is observed in the temperature of mountains as they are ascended?
Where can every kind of climate be passed through by merely ascending the mountains?
What inference as to the growth of plants may we make from this knowledge?
SECTION XII. OF THE EARTH.
Lesson 93. Collections of Water.
Without the ocean the earth would be a desert; it would produce no plants, it would consequently be unfit for the support of animals. By the heat of the sun water is converted into vapour, and carried into the atmosphere. This vapour is afterwards condensed and diffused over both the land and the ocean.
The bed of the ocean is uneven, like the surface of the land; beneath the water there are reefs, rocks, sand-banks, shoals, plains, and valleys. Rivers generally rise within mountains; a gentle descent of water is a rivulet, a violent descent a torrent; if the descent be over projecting rocks, it is a cascade or a cataract. The union of several streams or torrents is a river, and rivers discharge their waters into the sea, into lakes, or into other rivers. Lakes are bodies of water entirely surrounded by land. Rivers flow through some lakes; other lakes are supplied by deep internal springs. Springs are formed by a fault, or crack in the strata, through which water rises. Wells are produced by making an artificial "fault" or opening, so as to allow the water to ascend. Marshes are tracts of land thinly covered with water.
Common salt is the principal solid substance in the water of the sea. Heat will evaporate the water, and leave the salt. Sea-water cannot be entirely purified by artificial means from the salt it contains.
In some parts of the sea the water whirls round and round in circles; these places are called whirlpools. Water-spouts are sometimes seen at sea; the sea becomes agitated under a dense cloud, the waves form an ascending column of water, which rises and whirls towards the cloud; a descending column from the cloud meets it, and it glides over the sea till it is dispersed.
THE OCEAN.
the ocean The continents and islands of the earth are environed by the ocean, which has different names assigned to it in different parts. The Arctic Ocean surrounds the North Pole; much of it is closed to navigation by a barrier of ice, for there are parts where the ice never melts. Floating masses of ice, flat, and many miles in extent, are found in the Arctic Ocean, and icebergs are found there which tower like rocky cliffs; these icebergs sometimes float into the open ocean. The Antarctic Ocean is more completely icy than the Arctic Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean, between the eastern shores of America and the western shores of Europe is the best known of any; it is traversed by vessels engaged in commerce, which convey vast stores of merchandise, and many passengers, between Europe and America. The Indian Ocean is remarkable for its hurricanes and monsoons; the Pacific for vast extent and the immense number of its islands. The smaller portions of the ocean, generally bounded by land, and forming immense bays, are called seas. There is a world of plants and animals beneath the surface of the ocean. (Continued)
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 93.
Ocean from okeanos (Gr.), formed from okus (Gr.), swift, and naein (Gr.), to flow; the great mass of water is divided into five principal oceans the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic oceans.
vapour aqueous vapour is caused by the action of the suns heat, producing evaporation according to its degree.
condensed from condenso, condensare, to thicken, to pack into smaller space.
Diffused from diffundo, diffusum, compounded of dis, asunder, and fundo,
fudi, fusum, to pour, to pour out, to spread abroad, to extend.
bed of the ocean that vast recess in the earths crust in which the waters of the sea are deposited.
Reefs as the coral reef in the South Seas, or the reefs on the coast of Japan.
mud-banks - as the Goodwin Sands at the mouth of the Thames.
Shoals as the shoals of Newfoundland; shallows, or shelves of land.
Rivulet a little river.
Torrent from torrens, rapid. violent.
Cascade from cado, casum, to fall.
Cataract from kataraktes (Gr.), compounded of kata, down, and rasso, to break, to dash, as the violent dash of a waterfall.
Lakes four kinds, l, those which have no outlet, and which receive no running water; 2, those which have an outlet, but receive no running water; 3, those which receive and discbarge streams; 4, those which receive streams, but have no outlet. Lakes of the fourth class have generally salt waters.
Fault from fallo, to deceive: an interruption to the regular stratified formations; so called because miners on coming to such disruption of the material vein are at fault.
Wells besides the ordinary wells, there are others called Artesian wells, which consist of deep bores of narrow compass, in which the water rises; said to have been first made in the province of Artois, in France.
Marshes mersc (A.S.), lnd saturated with fresh or salt water; probably from mare, a collection of waters.
common salt technically called chloride of soda.
Whirlpools caused by the obstructions arising from sand-banks, islands, rocks, or by opposing winds and currents at the point of junction or opposition. The Maelstrom, on the coast of Norway, and Charybdis, near Messina, are examples.
QUESTIONS 93.
Is the ocean necessary to the fruitfulness of the earth?
How is vapour produced?
Into what is this vapour converted?
Is the bed of the ocean even?
What dangers are beneath the surface of the water?
Where have rivers their rise?
What is a rivulet? a torrent? a cascade? a cataract?
Describe the course of a river from its source to its fall.
What are lakes?
How many kinds of lakes are there?
Describe each class.
What are springs?
How are wells produced?
What are Artesian wells?
What are marshes?
What substance is found in sea-water?
What effect has heat on sea-water?
What are whirlpools?
Can you mention two noted whirlpools?
What are waterspouts?
Describe their operation.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What do you mean by the ocean?
Where is the Arctic Ocean?
Why is it closed to the passage of ships?
What are icebergs?
When are they dangerous to navigators?
What ocean is more icy than the Arctic Ocean?
Where is the Atlantic Ocean?
Why is it the best known of all the oceans?
For what phenomena is the Indian Ocean remarkable?
Which is the largest of all the oceans?
Where is the Pacific Ocean situated?
What are the smaller portions of the ocean called?
Why do we not know as much of the ocean as we know of the land?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Water becomes ice by exposure to extreme cold and also by rapid evaporation. Large masses of ice are called icebergs; sometimes they are immoveably fixed, at other times they are found floating in the Arctic and Antarctic seas. By heat, water becomes vapour, by intense heat, steam; the force of steam increases up to a certain point as the heat increases. Clouds are produced by the vapour which rises from the earth; they are of great use in moderating both the heat of the sun and the cold of frost in almost all climates, and are grateful to vegetables and to animals. Clouds produce rain. Rain is at first a fine watery powder, the particles become united, form drops, and fall on the earth. The water which is evaporated from the ocean is collected by the clouds, and carried far inland by currents of air, and contributes to the support of vegetable and animal life.
Water administers to our constant wants and conveniences; its application to the surface of the body is indispensable to health and comfort; it is the most wholesome common beverage for man and animals, its insipidity being one of its best qualities. With water our choicest food is mixed, our tea and coffee are infused; and the medicinal or nutritive qualities of various animal, vegetable, and mineral substances are extracted. Water is conducted into canals to convey the heavily laden barge; is confined in pools and dams for the millwheel; and is evaporated into steam for the railroad, the steamboat, the factory, and the mill. The leather for our shoes, the flax for our linen, the earthen cup from which we drink, the bricks and mortar for our habitation, the ink with which we write, the paper which makes visible our thoughts, could not have been produced without water.
PHENOMENA OF THE OCEAN.
The ocean has three principal movements, that of the waves, which is inconstant and irregular, being occasioned by winds; that of the tides, occasioned by the attraction of the moon, which is regular and periodical; and that of currents. which resembles great rivers permanently flowing. Generally, when the surface of the ocean is agitated by winds, the waters are perfectly tranquil at a very small depth. The influence of the moon on the ocean causes the tide-wave to flow gradually higher and higher for six hours, then a repose of about a quarter of an hour occurs, after which the tide ebbs or retires during another six hours. The ocean thus flows and ebbs twice a day. The currents of the ocean arises from a variety of causes, and every large ocean has its own currents: sometimes they are caused by winds; sometimes by difference of temperature in different parts; and sometimes by the melting of polar ice: some of the ocean currents are slow, others move with considerable velocity. They are of great benefit in carrying the seeds of one region to another, and in moderating temperatures. Hughes's Physical Geography.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 94.
Ice probably from isos (Gr.), even; a plane surface; frozen water generally presents an even surface.
cold as the atmosphere becomes cold the water parts with its caloric, or heat, by which its fluidity is maintained, in proportion to the degree of coldness of the air.
icebergs - not unfrequently the cause of disasters at sea. The passage to America from this country, early in spring, affords opportunities of seeing large fragments of these icy mountains, as they become separated about that period, and float down the Atlantic.
vapour water reduced to an aeriform appearance by the combination of heat. Being lighter than the atmosphere, it becomes gradually absorbed into it, but may be again condensed.
steam vapour in its highest state of expansion. Water, when converted into steam, occupies 1,700 times the space it occupied in its original state.
Clouds from ge-hlidad (A.S ), covered, hidden thrown into shade. Clouds partially obscure the suns light. Clouds are supposed to be made up of innumerable small globules filled with damp air, analogous, in some degree, to soap bubbles.
rain from rinan (A.S.), to run or flow down.
indispensable from in, not, and dispeneo, dispensare, to set loose, to distribute; that cannot be set aside or rendered unnecessary.
Beverage from beuvrage (Fr.), deduced from boire, to drink, ouvrage, a work; a drinkable liquid; formerly applied to the drink given for labour performed.
insipidity from in, not, and sapo, sapere, to have flavour; destitute of flavour.
canals artificial rivers or channels of water; of immense service in the cheap transportation of heavy merchandise from one part of a country to another.
QUESTIONS 94.
How does water become ice?
What are icebergs?
Where are icebergs to be seen?
how is water converted into vapour and steam?
Why does vapour ascend?
What increased space does water occupy when converted into steam?
How are clouds produced?
What is their use?
What is rain at its commencement?
How is it formed into drops?
What becomes of the water that is taken up from the ocean?
Describe some of the advantages we derive from water.
How is it used as a means of conveyance?
How is it used as a power to act on machinery?
How is it used as a power for the steam engine?
To what purposes are steam engines applied?
Mention other advantages which we derive from water.
What are canals?
QUESTION5 ON FOOT NOTES.
How many principal movements has the ocean?
Why is the motion of the waves irregular?
What causes tides?
Is the tidal movement regular or not?
What is the third great movement of the ocean?
Is the agitation of the ocean by winds very deep?
For how long does the tide-wave rise?
What then occurs?
How long is the tidewave in ebbing or receding?
How often then, in the twenty-four hours, does the ocean flow and ebb?
Tell me the principal causes of the ocean currents.
Do they all move with equal velocity?
Of what benefit are these streams of the ocean?
SECTION XII. OF THE EARTH.
Lesson 95. Substance of the Earth.
As the earth is nearly 8,000 miles in diameter, or through it, we know nothing of its centre; we do not know whether it is hollow or solid in the centre, whether it is a perpetual fire, or a body of water. The earth has not been penetrated to any very considerable depth, yet it is from this source that we are supplied with many of the necessaries of life, and without which it would not be habitable. The part which has been penetrated is called the crust of the earth. From it we obtain earths and stones, several kinds of salts, the metals, and the combustible minerals.
Among the earths are the different kinds of quartz and flint, the precious stones, slate, clay, limestone, spar, marble, and magnesia. All these are incombustible, some of them can be baked or changed by fire, but none of them can be consumed.
The next division of minerals contains the salts, among which are potash, soda of different kinds, salt, and ammonia; all these are found combined with other substances, which can be separated by the chemist. All the salts contain acids combined with alkalies, or with some other substance.
The metallic ores consist of iron, manganese, tin, bismuth, arsenic, cobalt, nickel, silver, copper, gold, platinum, antimony, zinc, quicksilver, &c.; they are rarely found quite pure, but the pure metal can be separated from all these ores by chemical operations. The metals are generally found an veins.
The combustible minerals are sulphur, carbon, coal, bitumen, plumbago or black lead, naphtha, and amber. The hardest and the softest minerals diamond and naphtha, are found among the combustible minerals.
STRATIFICATION OF THE EARTH. CONSTITUENTS OF SOIL.
The crust of the earth has been penetrated by the labours of man nearly 3,000 feet, but masses of rock have been ejected from sixty times that depth by the action of volcanoes. The upheaval of the granite rocks, forming our highest mountains, has enabled us to acquire our knowledge of the superincumbent beds; for the subterranean force which brought them so high above the more level surface of the earth, brought up also the masses of rock which lie immediately above them; consequently, we find upon or near the surface in one part, granite rocks; in another, vast mountains of slate; in another, thick beds of mountain limestone; in another, sandstone; In another, clay, or sand; in another, chalk, &c.: we thus have a general idea of the stratification of the earth crust.
Flint, clay, and lime are the three substances of which the greatest part of the earth is composed: the soil which the farmer cultivates consists of these substances in various proportions, and the three principal varieties of soil take their names from one or other of these substances preponderating in them. {Continued.)
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESS0N 95.
diameterfrom dia (Gr), through, and metron (Gr.), a measure.
Penetrated from penetro, to enter into, compounded of penitus, entirely, and intro, to enter; the utmost depth that has been attained is a little more than 2,700 feet, while from the surface to the centre of the earth (half its diameter), is 3,955 miles.
crust of the earth though the strata composing the crust is diversified in appearance, it is only so by the ever varying combination of a small number of simple substances.
Earths i.e., earthy minerals; the four earths that are the most abundant are silica, alumina, lime, and magnesia.
precious stones see Lesson 100.
claya plastic earth, consisting mainly of alumina one-third part, and silica
two-thirds. Clay owes its plasticity to the alumina.
Spar an abundant mineral, having in its composition silica, alumina, and potash.
Salts a class of chemical substances composed of two or more dissimilar elements in combination, so as to unite chemically, forming a substance dissimilar to either.
Potash potassium, the base of potash, was discovered by Dr. Davy, in 1807. It is found inherent in vegetables, whence it is obtained by burning them.
Salt found associated with gypsum and sandstone clays; is usually of a white or gray colour. Besides rock-salt, there are also vast salt lakes.
ammonia a volatile alkali, which, when pure, is in the gaseous form. It consists of three parts hydrogen, and one part nitrogen gas.
acids from acidus, sharp, deduced from akis (Gr.), a point or dart: a class of chemical substances which combine in certain proportions with alkalies. The following are a few : arsenous, boracic, carbonic, muriatic, sulphuric, &c.
alkalies acrid and caustic; they dissolve animal matter, and with fat form soap.
Manganese found massive in Sweden, Siberia, and elsewhere; it is of a red colour.
Tin - there are two principal ores. Native tin is found in the washings in the Ural mountains.
bismuthoccurs native as well as in combination; found in Saxony, Bohemia, Cornwall.
Arsenic found both native and in combination with lead and silver ores.
Cobalt has not yet been found native, but is found in combination with nickel.
Silver from seolfer (A.S.), silver; found native and in arborescences, penetratlng rocks, and also in lead ores.
Copper from cyper (A.S.), or from cuprum, Cyprus brass; found native, and in several kinds of ores. Cornwall, Brazil, Siberia, and Australia produce large quantities.
Gold gold (Ger.); found native in nuggets, and in "washings;" also in quartz rocks.
Sulphur found abundantly in the native state; chiefly brought from Sicily.
Carbon from carbo, carbonis, coal; occurs crystallized in the diamond, but generally impure, as in coal.
Coal composed of carbon and hydrogen, about 8S of the former, and 15 of the latter.
Plumbago composed of carbon and iron, there being 90 to 96 per cent. of the former. The mines of Cumberland are worked only for six weeks in each year, when £4OO,000 is usually realized.
QUESTIONS 95.
What is the diameter of the earth?
What do we know of the earths centre?
How deep has the earth been penetrated?
What minerals do we obtain from its crust?
Enumerate some of the earths.
What are their general properties?
Name some of the salts.
What do all salts contain?
By whose skill are they separated?
What are acids? What are alkalies?
Give me examples of metallic ores?
How is the pure metal separated?
How are the metals generally found?
Mention a few of the combustible minerals.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How deep has the crust of the earth been penetrated by man?
What do we know of the rocks below this depth?
How have we been able to acquire any knowledge of the different strata of the earths crust?
Can you explain this by a diagram?
Show the mass of granite lying below the other rocks in horizontal strata the slate rocks the sandstone the limestone the coal-measures above them also in horizontal strata. Then show the granite upheaved, forming a cone with its apex above all the other rocks and coming through the surface of the earth, and the consequent dislocation of the superincumbent strata from their level position to a slanting one on each side the cone of granite.
What benefit do we derive from the upheaval of the granite?
If there had been no upheaval, but horizontal strata, what would have been the disadvantage to us?
What are the three principal substances of the earths crust?
Bow do the different soils obtain their names?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Quartz is often found in a crystallized state, and more or less transparent; it is employed in making the finer kinds of glass. Flint is used in the manufacture of porcelain and glass; it is heated red hot, thrown into water, and then reduced to powder. Slate is found in extensive layers of rock, its chief use is for roofing houses and for writing upon; a softer kind is made into slate pencils; slate is also employed for ornament in chimney-pieces, vases, ink- stands, &c.
Common red clay is made into bricks and tiles; potters day into eating and drinking vessels, which are glazed, that water may not penetrate them; pipe-clay into tobacco-pipes; porcelain clay into the finer articles of china or porcelain; these articles are coated with a fine transparent enamel. Vessels made of porcelain clay are semi-transperent, those made of potters clay are opaque. Tripoli is a kind of clay which is used for polishing glass and metals. Italian chalk is used for drawing, it is imported from France and Italy. Mica is transparent, it is used in some parts of Russia instead of glass. Limestone is found in a variety of combinations. Common limestone is baked to make lime for mortar. Every kind of marble is limestone.
Alum is an earthy salt; it is manufactured in England from the slaty alum shale, abundant near Whitby; it is indispensable to dyers and tanners. Magnesia and its sulphate, Epsom salts, are well-known medicines. Soda is used in the manufacture of glass, in bleaching, and in medicine. Saltpetre is used in making gunpowder; and from it aquafortis, so much used by dyers, bleachers, and workers in metals, is prepared.
CONSTITUENTS OF SOIL. (CONTINUED.)
Flint, or silex, is the most abundant kind of earth; it is granite decomposed by the action of the atmosphere and water, and washed down from the mountains. The small portions are rolled, rubbed, and ground against each other, and the finest of them form sand, so that sand is flint or granite in a powdered state. Eighty-seven parts out of a hundred of loam are fine sand, the other thirteen parts are clay, so that much of a good soil consists of flint. The clayey earth, alumine, is the most abundant, next to silex. Clay, the chief material of slaty rocks, is disengaged from them by the action of the atmosphere, and forms the aluminous soil. Limestone is much less abundant than silex or alumine. When the decomposition of limestone rocks takes place, the lime thus disturbed, mixed with sand or clay, forms the marly soil so valuable to the agriculturalist. The sandy soils consist chiefly of silicious sand; the limestone, or marly soils contain much limestone; and the clay soils abound in clay, consisting chiefly of silex and alumine. A poor soil is one in which sand and gravel, with little clay or lime, are the constituents.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 96.
Quartz pure silex is pure quartz. No mineral presents so many forms and colours as quartz. There are three principal varieties, l, the vitreous; 2, the chalcedonic; 3, the jaspery. Its properties are, 1, hardness; 2, infusibility; 3, insolubility; 4, absence of cleavage. Petrified wood often consists of quartz.
Flint (A.S., Ger., and Dan.), supposed to be deduced from plittein (Gr.), to strike, because when struck it produces fire. One of the chalcedonic varieties of quartz, consisting of massive compact silica, of dark shades if smoky, and slightly translucent; found in nodules of chalk.
Glass the kind used is called granular quartz, which (in rocks) is the most refractory of all rocks.
Slate probably from the verb to sit. Roofing slate occurs in Wales, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Cornwall, and Devon.
red clay usually contains a considerable portion of sand.
potters clay has a soft and greasy feel; it is reddish, bluish, or greenish.
porcelain clay yellowish-white, or reddish-white; a large tract of this clay exists near St. Austle, Cornwall, which supplies the porcelain manufactories.
Tripoli so called from having been first brought from Tripoli, in Africa.
Italian chalk a natural mineral, so called because our largest supplies come from Italy. French crayons are a manufactured article.
micathat of Russia is called Muscovy Glass, and is used for most of the purposes of glass. It is found in plates of more than a yard in diameter, and may be divided into plates so thin that 10,000 would be required to make an inch.
Limestone a general name for all the massive varieties occurring in extensive beds. Limestones consist essentially of carbonate of lime, or of the carbonate of lime and magnesia.
Marble from marmairo (Gr.), to shine; certain kinds of limestone; they are either granular or compact. To the former belong those of Carrara, in Italy, and those of the Island of Paros; to the latter, numerous kinds, among which are the Bristol, Derbyshire, Kilkenny, and the oolitic marbles.
Alum from alumen, probably deduced from als (Gr.), salt; seldom found pure or crystallized; it is used in a vast number of arts; it is acidiferous, alkaline, and earthy.
Magnesia one of the primitive earths. Pure magnesia does not form with water an adhesive ductile mass: it is, moreover, very slightly soluble in water.
Soda discovered in 1807, by Davy; it is one of the fixed alkalies generally obtained from the ashes of marine plants.
saltpetre from sal (Lat.), salt, and petron (Gr.), a rock; nitric acid combined with potash; hence named nitrate of potassa. It is found native in the East Indies, in Spain, Naples, &c.
aquafortis aqua, water, and fortis, strong; literally, strong water; now called nitric acid.
QUESTIONS 96.
For what manufacture is quartz employed? How is flint prepared for the manufacture of porcelain and glass?
In what condition is slate found?
What are its chief uses?
For what purposes are the different kinds of clay used?
What difference is there in vessels made of potters clay and those made of porcelain clay?
What is Tripoli used for?
Decr1be the chief property of mica, and its use.
For what is the common kind of limestone used?
What is marble?
What is alum?
Where is it made, and from what?
What salts are used in medical practice?
For what purposes is soda useful?
What are the uses of saltpetre?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Which is the most abundant of the three substances which constitute soils?
What is silex?
By what means does it become sand?
What proportion of fine sand is there in a loamy soil?
What are the other thirteen parts?
Which earth is most abundant next to silex?
What is the chief material of slaty rocks?
How is it disengaged from the rocks?
What mixture of earths is there in a marly soil?
Which is the least abundant of the three principal earths?
Of what earth are the sandy soils chiefly composed?
Of what do the marly soils consist?
What are the chief constituents of the clay soils?
Of what parts are the poor or hungry soils composed?
SECTION XII. OF THE EARTH.
Metals are distinguished from other minerals by their brightness, their opacity, and their weight. They are found in a native or metallic state, in an earthy state, or combined with sulphur or acid. When combined with other substances the mass is called an ore. Thus we have gold ore, lead ore, &c.
Metals are found in veins, beds, masses, and fragmentary deposits. these vary in thickness and in distance from the surface. Fragments may be found in any direction, but veins, beds, and masses always appear in geological order; silver and tin lying east and west; gold, iron, and lead, north and south.
Gold and silver are called the precious metals. Gold is distinguished by its yellow colour, and its weight; it is more ductile than silver. Silver is a white, brilliant, sonorous, ductile metal, obtained from Mexico and Peru, but found also in all lead mines.
Copper is found native, and in many kinds of ore; it is obtained in large quantities in Europe, America and the East; it is very sonorous and ductile.
Iron is the most common and the most useful of all the metals; it is seldom found in a native state, but combined with earth and sulphur. Iron is employed in three states, namely, cast-iron, wrought-iron, and steel.
Lead is a heavy, gray metal; soft, flexible, and easily melted; it is abundant in many parts of England, and in other countries.
Tin is white, like silver, but it is lighter, softer, and less ductile. It is always found as an ore; the principal tin mines are in Cornwall and Devon.
Nickel is a white ductile metal, which is found in Cornwall and in Saxony; it is often found combined with arsenic, and also with cobalt; it is seldom used except in combination with other metals.
Zinc is a whitish blue metal, frequently employed instead of lead; it is abundant in England, and in many parts of Europe.
Quicksilver, the only fluid metal, is extensively used in the arts, and in medicine; the chief mines are in Spain, Austria, and South America.
Platinum is one of the hardest and heaviest of metals; it is not so white as silver, it is difficult to melt, and very ductile. It is obtained from South America, and from the Ural mountains.
Gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, nickel, zinc, platinum, are malleable; arsenic, antimony, cobalt, manganese, and some other metals, are brittle.
THE PRECIOUS METALS. THEIR PROPERTIES.
Gold, silver, and platinum have a value with which no other metals can compare natural properties which render them superior to the other metals. The oxygen of the atmosphere acts on iron, tin, copper, &c, and in consequence of this action, they lose their lustre they tarnish they rust they are oxidised; the precious metals resist this enemy of their brightness, and suffer no change Again they have a greater specific gravity; that is, they are heavier than most of the ordinary metals. Gold is nineteen times heavier than water; platinum twenty times heavier; and silver, ten times heavier that is, a vessel full of water weighed, and then filled up with gold instead, would weigh nineteen times heavier in the latter weighing. Iron, tin, and zinc are about seven times heavier than water. This considerable weight facilitates the collecting of the precious metals, when they have to be separated from sand and stones by washing, for few of the stones or earths are more than three times as heavy as water, and are, therefore, readily washed away, while the precious metals remain at the bottom of the vessel used.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 97.
metals divided into malleable and brittle metals.
minerals natural bodies without any organization, found on the earth, or under its surface
brightness from the Gothic bairhtyan, to make clear, to grow splendid or illustrious.
Opacity from opacus, dark, obscure.
Weight - from waegan (A.S.) to bear, that which makes itself felt when carried or borne.
Ore from ora (A.S.), unrefined metal.
Veins from vena, blood-vessels in animals.
Beds from bed, strewed, the past participle of the verb bedden (Ger.), to strew; thus we speak of a bed of gravel.
Masses concreted bodies of matter.
Fragmentary from frango, to break.
gold from geldan (A.S.), to cause to have the colour of flame; or from gold (Ger.)
silver from seolfer (A.S.), silber(Ger.), silfver (Swed.)
copper from cuprium; Cyprus brass.
Ductile ductilis, from duco, duxi, ductus, to lead.
Sonorous from sonor, sonoris, a great sound.
Iron Anglo-Saxon iren, Scotch airn, Welsh haiarn, Irish iaraun, perhaps from iro (Heb.), to cast irim, or iurim, casting. The root of this word is not easy to ascertain, and the period of its discovery is a subject of dispute and uncertainty.
Tin both the metal and its name were transported at the same time from Britain. The Greeks called it kassiteros, that which draws close, in allusion to its property of covering other metals, or uniting them together.
cobalt communicates a beautiful blue colour to glass; preparations of it are used in giving the bluish tinge to cambric, muslins, thread, paper; largely used in pottery; it also gives the blue tinge to starch.
Quicksilver from quick, living, and silver; so named from its fluid condition.
platinum or white gold, derives its name from the Spanish plata, on account of its silvery aspect.
Malleable from malleus, a hammer; that which may be beaten; i.e., to some purpose, by causing extension.
brittle from brytan (A.S.), to break; brittleness is the absence of cohesion; easily broken.
QUESTIONS 97.
In what respects are metals distinguishable from other minerals?
In what several states are they found?
What is ore?
In what positions are metals found?
Explain the distinction between the fragmentary and other deposits.
Which are the precious metals?
Enumerate the characteristics of gold, also those of silver.
How is copper found?
What are its properties?
Is iron useful?
What is stated in the lesson as to its utility and abundance?
How is it found?
In what several states is it employed?
What is lead?
What are its properties?
Is it abundant?
What is tin, and what are its properties?
Where are the principal tin mines?
Where is nickel found?
Describe zinc, and tell me for what metal it is substituted.
What is quicksilver?
What are its principal uses?
What is platinum?
Describe its properties, and tell me its localities.
What is the difference between malleable and brittle?
What metals are malleable? What metals are brittle?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Which are the three precious metals?
In what respects are they superior to other metals?
If iron were exposed to the atmosphere, what change would soon be observable on its surface?
How would exposure affect the appearance of copper or brass, &c.?
The common metals rust or are oxidized Does such exposure affect the precious
metals?
What other property have they different to ordinary metals?
What are the specific gravities of the precious metals?
What do you mean by this?
What are the specific gravities of some of the common metals?
What advantage arises from their considerable weight?
They are also pre-eminent as the oldest metals, for they are found in the oldest rocks.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 98. Combustible Minerals.
The name minerals is applied to all substances dug from mines. Some minerals are combustible.
Sulphur is a very brittle and inflammable mineral; it is found in volcanic countries, and in burning emits a suffocating fume.
Cool is generally composed of carbon and bitumen; there are several kinds, as anthracite or stone-coal, pit-coal, cannel-coal, brown-coal, and jet. Anthracite is abundant in Wales and Scotland; pit-coal in many parts of Britain; cannel or candle-coal in Lancashire; brown-coal at Bovey Tracy, in Devonshire; and jet near Whitby, in Yorkshire.
Bitumen, or mineral pitch, emits a bituminous odour, and is very inflammable; one kind is hard and brittle, another kind is elastic, a third kind is called asphalt.
Naphtha and petroleum are mineral oils; they both burn freely, and give out strong odours; they are found in various parts of the world. Naphtha thickens by exposure to the air, and then resembles petroleum.
Amber is of various shades of yellow; it is found in lumps or masses; it is brittle, and either transparent or semi-transparent. It is often found with insects enclosed in it. Amber deposits are worked on the coast of Prussia, though they are found in other countries also. When rubbed, amber has the property of attracting light bodies. From this property electricity was first discovered.
Pure carbon, or diamond, is the most valuable of gems, and the hardest of known bodies; it is a transparent mineral, and at a certain heat consumes.
Plumbago, or black-lead, is of a steel gray colour, with metallic lustre, easily scratched, and greasy to the touch. The chief mine is at Borrowdale in Cumberland.
COAL FIELDS. WORKING OF COAL MINES.
Coal The principal mineral fuel in this country, came into use from the gradual decrease in the supply of wood. The first colliery was opened in the year 1238, near Newcastle-on-Tyne. There are coal-fields of large extent, or detached basins of coal, in many parts of England and Wales. (See explanations to Lesson 106) Since the supply of coal has been large and regular, great advancement has been made in the industrial arts; the application of steam as a motive power has caused an increasing demand for coal, and it has been found in many parts of the earth. The seams of coal are worked by means of shafts and galleries in mines, and the large masses removed from many coal-mines demand the greatest care in propping, and otherwise securing the works, by means of timber, to prevent the crushing together of the workings, as well as to induce a current of fresh air for the respiration of the workmen, and to prevent the accumulation of those explosive gases which are often generated in beds of coal. - Phillips Metallurgy.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 98.
Minerals this general term includes earths, stones, metals, sulphur, and all other inorganic bodies in their simple and combined states.
combustible from con, together, and uro, ussi, ustum, to burn; anything that may be burnt easily, ignited, or set on fire.
sulphur called also brimstone, i.e. burning stone; a solid, elementary, and non-metallic body; in combination with metals it forms the ores called pyrites, Sulphur is used in the manufacture of gunpowder of sulphuric acid; in bleaching, and in medicines.
Coal a solid inflammable substance of a bituminous nature, dug out of the earth, and used as fuel. Mineral coal is widely diffused; it is a vegetable deposit.
anthracite from anthrax, anthrakos (Gr.), coal; or stone coal. This coal is not bituminous; it is the oldest of all kinds of fossil fuel; is compact and hard, has a high lustre, and is often iridescent.
pit coal coal appears to have been known to the ancients, and to the Britons before the Romans visited this country, but seems not to have been much an article of commerce till near the end of the twelfth century.
cannel coal, or candle coal compact in texture; burns without melting, with a clear yellow flame. It is often made into inkstands, boxes, and chimney ornaments.
brown coal also called lignite, from its woody texture; varied in appearance and composition, and hence has several distinct names.
jet not unlike cannel coal, but is harder, of a deeper black, and has a much higher lustre. The name jet is extracted from its ancient name Gagates, from the river Gagas in Syria, near the mouth of which it was found. It is made into brooches, rings, chains, &c.
bitumen a fat unctuous matter, dug out of the earth, or skimmed off lakes. There are two principal varieties, elastic bitumen and asphaltum.
Asphaltum called Jews pitch, occurs massive, and breaks with a high lustre, like hardened tar. It is exceedingly brittle at a low temperature, but fuses on the application of heat: It is found floating on the surface of the Dead Sea.
Naptha a mineral oil, found on the borders of springs, on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Persia. It burns better than oil in mines where bad air prevails, and is less injurious to health. It Is a limpid yellowish fluid, lighter than water. Naphtha is also produced from coal tar.
Petroleum differs only from naphtha in consistency and colour; it is thicker, darker, and almost opaque, and its smell is stronger.
Amber from the German amberen , to burn, to kindle. Amber is the Electron of the Greeks, and called by the Latins succinum, because of its supposed vegetable origin. Those specimens which contain insects "flies in amber" are highly prized. Found chiefly on the coasts of the Baltic.
electricity from Electron (Gr.), amber, which was very anciently observed to have the property, when warmed by friction, of attracting bodies.
plumbago from plumbum, lead; a compound of carbon and iron, often called carburet of iron, graphite, and black lead. It conducts electricity, is infusible, and difficult of combustion.
QUESTIONS 98.
What are minerals?
Are they all incombustible?
Describe the properties of sulphur.
Where Is It found?
What is the quality of its fume?
Of what substances is coal composed?
Name the chief varieties of coal?
Where is anthracite abundant?
Is pit coal abundant?
Where is the locality of cannel coal?
To what purpose is it applied?
Where is brown coal found?
What other name has it?
Why is it called lignite?
Is jet found in England? What is bitumen?
Now many kinds of bitumen are found?
What are naphtha and petroleum, and what are their properties?
How and where is amber found?
What are its properties?
What important discovery was made from a property of amber?
Which is the hardest of known bodies?
Of what does diamond consist?
Describe the colour and other peculiarities of plumbago.
Where is its chief mine?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Which is our pinclpa1 mineral fuel?
What caused its use?
Where was the first colliery opened?
Refer to the explanations of Lesson 106. and then tell me where the principal coal-fields are situated?
What result has followed the large and regular supply of coal?
How has the application of steam as a moving power affected the demand?
Can you tell me in what other parts of the world coal has been discovered?
How are the seams of coal worked?
What is necessary to be done in the mines as the coal is removed?
For what purpose is this propping necessary?
Do you ever hear of accidents in coal mines?
From what cause do they generally arise?
SECTION XII. OF THE EARTH.
Metals are used for tools, for furniture, for ornaments, and for medicines.
Iron may be used as cast-iron, as hammered-iron, or as steel. Cast-iron is iron melted in a furnace, and when liquid run into moulds to form various articles. It is converted into wrought iron by re-melting it, working it in a furnace, and hammering it. Bars of iron are converted into steel by being baked in contact with powdered charcoal for several hours. The most ponderous machinery, the hardest tools, and the finest needles are made of cast-iron, wrought-iron, or steel.
Tin is used chiefly to coat over thin plates of iron, which are then formed into vessels for cooking, &c.; the insides of copper vessels are often tinned.
Gold can be beaten into the thinnest leaves, or drawn into the finest wire. Leaf gold is used in gilding commoner metals; gold is mixed with copper for coins. It is also made into costly vessels, ornaments, trinkets, &c.
Silver ranks next in value to gold; it is made into coins. Many useful and ornamental articles, as spoons, watch-cases, &c., are made of silver. This metal is nearly as ductile as gold. Lunar caustic, much used in surgical practice, and for making indelible ink, is a preparation of silver.
Copper is perhaps the most useful of all metals next to iron; it is used for sheathing ships, for engraving on, for making cooking utensils, &c. Mixed with zinc it forms brass: and with tin and zinc it forms bell-metal. Its preparations vitriol, verdigris, and verditer are used in medicine, in painting, and in dyeing.
Antimony is used in several medicinal preparations; it also gives a yellow colour to glass and earthenware, and is valuable in type-casting.
Lead is not only used in a metallic state, but from it white lead and red lead for house-painting are made, and several medicinal preparations.
Zinc is employed for covering roofs, for rain-water spouts, and many other purposes: its chief consumption is in the manufacture of brass.
Quicksilver is used to refine gold and silver, for silvering looking glasses, for filling barometers, for manufacturing into vermillion, and for several medicinal preparations.
Bismuth is mixed with quicksilver and tin for silvering looking glasses.
Arsenic is used in the manufacture of glass, and shot; its oxide is a useful medicine in proper quantities, but a deadly poison.
WHY IRON IS CHEAP IN GREAT BRITAIN.
The annual value of the mineral produce of this kingdom amounts to £24,000,000; the most important of our metallurgical products is iron. The ores of iron exist in extraordinary abundance throughout various districts of the country, and the fuel necessary for the smelting of iron exists also in equal abundance, and generally very near the ore. These two conditions are specially favourable to the production of cheap iron, abundant ore and fuel occurring together. Besides these, we have a dense population, and, as a consequence, cheap labour. In no other country are circumstances so favourable for the production of cheap iron; for though in some parts of North America there are rich and extensive coal-fields, and a profusion of iron ore, generally the two do not occur together, and the expense of carriage would be great. America is, as yet, but thinly populated; the expense of labour would, therefore, be much greater than in Great Britain. In respect, then, to the capability of the prodution of cheap iron, our own country is at present unrivalled. Records of the School of Mines. Dr. Percy.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 99.
Metals compact, heavy, hard, opaque bodies, fusible and malleable in different degrees. Originally there were but seven, viz., gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, lead, and quicksilver; the number is now increased to fifty-one. Only a few, of them are found native, that is, either pure or alloyed with other metals.
Iron has never been found native, except in the form of meteoric iron; it is widely diffused, is difficult of fusion, is malleable, ductile, and tenacious. It is the only metal susceptible of magnetic attraction.
Cast iron is either white or gray, according to the quality, the former being the harder of the two. The introduction of the hot blast by Mr. Neilson, instead of the cold blast, in smelting, has proved a great advantage.
Steel iron and carbon combined form steel. The fabrication of cast-steel is of comparatively modern date.
Tin one of the lightest of metals, occasionally found native. It is white, very fusible, malleable, flexible, but not very tenacious. There is evidence to show that the Cornish tin mines were worked long before the Christian era.
Gold was among the merchandise carried to Tyre (Ezek. xxvii. 22): colour, a fine yellow, of various shades. It is extremely ductile, malleable, and tough. Large quantities of this precious metal have been found, within the last few years, in California, one of the states of the North American Union, and in the English colonies of South Australia, and New South Wales.
silver colour white, but externally often blackish; it is soft, malleable, and ductile; it is capable of a high polish, and resists rust when exposed to atmospheric action. It ignites before it melts.
Lunar-caustic or fused nitrate of silver, is chiefly used as an extreme application in certain inflammations and other complaints.
Copper ductile, malleable, very tenacious, and extremely, sonorous. When exposed to a damp air it quickly becomes coated with a green substance called verdigris. All the preparations of copper are poisonous.
Antimony it is brilliant, of a bluish white colour; is very brittle, but melts at a red heat. Sometimes found native, in which state it is known as the "regulus of antimony."
Lead rarely occurs native but in combination with sulphur, and also with arsenic, &c. it is a bluish white metal, very soft and flexible, and easily beaten into thin plates with a hammer.
white lead is the carbonate of lead.
red lead is the red oxide of lead.
Zinc is bluiah-white, and of a resinous or waxy lustre; its ores are nearly infusible, hence it may be easily pulverized.
quicksilver a fluid metal, distinguished from all other metals by its extreme fusibility. It has a silvery colour, with strong metallic lustre; it combines readily with other metals; it congeals at a temperature of forty degrees below zero.
Bismuth rather harder than lead, very slightly malleable, is very brittle, melts easily, and is of a reddish white colour.
Arsenic of a tin-white colour, but easily tarnishes; it possesses a strong metallic lustre. It is a ponderous and brittle metal, but is highly combustible. White arsenic, one of the most deadly of poisons, is employed medicinally
QUESTIONS 99.
What are metals used for?
Describe some of the processes for producing the different kinds of Iron.
What are the uses of cast iron?
What articles are made of steel?
What are the uses of tin?
To what various purposes is gold applied 7
What metal is next in value to gold?
What are its uses?
What is brass?
How is bell-metal formed?
What are the uses of copper?
What is antimony useful for?
Name the uses of lead.
For what is zinc employed?
What are the uses of quicksilver?
For what purpose is bismuth used?
Name the use of arsenic.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is the annual value of the mineral produce of this kingdom?
Which is the most important of our metallurgical products?
Why so?
What circumstance is favourable to the conversion of iron ore into the metal?
To what other result is this condition favourable?
How is a dense population favourable to cheap labour?
What would be the result if these conditions did not exist?
How is North America circumstanced as to coal and ironstone?
Why would the iron produced under these conditions be dearer than in Great Britain?
What other circumstance in North America is unfavourable to the production of cheap iron there?
Recapitulate the circumstances favourable to the production of cheap iron in this country.
Apply this to some other production such as chairs made of American birch.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
The diamond is the most valuable of all gems; the best diamonds are brought from the East Indies; they are found in the deep crevices of rocks. Of all transparent substances none can be compared with a pure diamond. The finest are in the possession of sovereign princes, and are valued according to their size and brilliancy. The sapphire is of a full deep blue; it is found among the sand of rivers in Ceylon; some exhibit a whitish floating light in their interior. The ruby is of an intense red; it is seldom seen of a large size; there are, however, two rubies in the possession of Persian princes, said to be more valuable than diamonds. The amethyst is a rare gem, of a fine purple colour, as if the colours of the sapphire and ruby were united in it. The emerald is valued for its fine green colour. The topaz is generally of a fine wine-yellow; the best are imported from Brazil. The ruby, the amethyst, the topaz, and the emerald, are all sapphires. The garnet is found, in many varieties, the finest are of a crimson red. In Bohemia many persons are employed in collecting, cutting, and boring garnets.
Cairn-gorum crystals are made into seal-stones, stones for rings, necklaces, brooches, and bracelets; many lapidaries carry on this business at Aberdeen. Chalcedony is a species of quartz, susceptible of a high polish; onyx and cornelian are species of chalcedony. Agates are found on many of the British coasts; some of them are figured in a very singular manner with moss, leaves, stripes, fortifications, &c. The opal is a semi-transparent stone, generally of a milky white; it exhibits changes of colour, blue, green, red, and yellow, when held between the eye and the light. Rock crystal is a beautiful kind of quartz, which opticians call pebbles, and use for spectacle glasses.
PRECIOUS STONES LESS VALUABLE THAN COMMON EARTH.
precious stones These stones are not found in all kinds of rocks or geological formations: the most valuable are found chiefly in those rocks which are considered to be the oldest on the earth those called primitive rocks, which consist of granite, gneiss, micaceous slate, &c. In Ceylon, and in Brazil, which yield many precious stones, they are chiefly found in the sands of rivers. All the precious stones are esteemed more for their variety and beauty than for any intrinsic value they possess. They are of less real value than silex, which not only forms a large portion of our productive soil, but which actually enters into the composition of many plants; they cannot be compared with the slaty clay rocks, which yield alumine, another Important constituent in the soil we cultivate; nor to limestone, the other principal component of the productive earth; neither can they enter into comparison with coal or with the metallic ores.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 100.
Diamond adamas, adamantos (Gr.). The diamond is commonly colourless, but occasionally green, yellow, red, brown, &c. It is transparent, consists of pure carbon, burns at a high temperature, and strongly refracts and disperses light. Diamonds are cut for ornamental purposes into rose-diamonds and brilliants.
Sapphire from saphes (Gr.), clear; a gem of a clear blue colour. Sapphire, composed of pure alumina, is both transparent and translucent, and exceeds all other stones in hardness, except the diamond.
Ruby from rubinus (low Lat.), a red stone, deduced from ruber, red. The red sapphire, in some of its varieties, is, next to the diamond, the mast costly of gems.
Amethyst from amethustos (Gr.), not intoxicating; compounded of a, not, and methu (Gr.), wine. The amethyst was supposed to be an antidote to drunkenness. It is a purple or bluish variety of quartz crystal.
Chalcedony composed of pure sliex and a minute portion of water; found as a stalactite in the cavities of certain rocks. It is more or less clouded or opaque, with veins, circles, and spots.
Emerald smaragdus; it owes its colour to oxide of chrome, has a vitreous lustre, and is transparent and translucent.
Topaz topazius, a precious stone of a yellowish colour, it was found in an island in the Red Sea. Topaz signifies to seek.
All sapphires blue is the true colour of the sapphire; when this gem is of other tints it receives other names; as oriental ruby, oriental emerald, &c.
garnetthe carbuncle of the ancients; those of Pegu are most highly valued.
Cairn-gorum - a mass of mountains in Aberdeenshire; one of which, Ben Muiedhui, has the highest summit in Great Britain, except Ben Nevis.
Onyx onux (Gr.), a finger-nail; a pellucid veined gem, so called from its resemblance to a finger-nail.
Cornelian is a bright red chalcedony, of a clear rich tint. The Japanese cut great numbers into the form of the fruit of the olive.
Agate - achates, so called from the river Achates, in Sicily, where it was first found; it is a variegated chalcedony; the colours may be darkened by boiling the stone in oil, and then dropping it in sulphuric acid.
Opal of these stones there are twelve varieties. Pliny says that the name paederos, signifying beautiful as the complexion of youth, has been applied to the opal.
rock crystal or pure pellucid quartz. To this mineral the ancients first applied the word crystal, krustallos (Gr.), ice.
QUESTIONS 100.
Where are the best diamonds found?
What quality does a pure diamond possess in greater perfection than any other substance?
What is the sapphire? Where is it found?
Is the ruby valuable?
For what quality is the emerald valued?
Whence is the topaz obtained?
Where is the garnet found?
Where is the garnet made a source of profitable trade?
For what purposes are Cairn-gorum crystals used?
Where are they a source of business?
What is chalcedony?
Where are agates found?
What is opal?
For what is rock crystal used by opticians?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Are the precious stones found in all kinds of rocks?
In what rocks are the most valuable of them found?
What are these rocks called?
Of what do they consist?
What countries supply many precious stones?
Where are they found in those countries?
For what are precious stones chiefly esteemed?
Why are they of less value than silex? alumine? limestone? - coal? &c.
ALUMINIUM. Alumine has been made to yield a metal called aluminium. This metal will soon become abundant; it has the beauty and durability of silver, and the lightness of tin. As it is one of the principal elements of loam, the common name proposed for it is loam-silver.
SECTION XIII. OF SUBSTANCES.
Lesson 101. Kingdoms of Nature.
The lessons on animals, plants, and minerals, show us that everything we possess, for use, comfort, or convenience; the means of life, of health, of food, of clothing; the materials for industry, and the sources of wealth, are derived from natural objects. Everything about us is composed of one or more of these substances animals, vegetables, or minerals and these are called the three kingdoms of nature.
Independent of the large supply of food, and the materials for clothing, the animal kingdom supplies man with many other substances on which he exercises his skill and industry; from the whale and the elephant, to the ladybird and the creature whose skeleton is sponge, all furnish materials which are directly or indirectly useful.
The substances derived from the vegetable kingdom, from the towering pine to the humble moss, are not less beneficial than those supplied by animals. From this source men and animals obtain their chief support; for the animals which are preyed upon by others could not exist if they had not vegetable food to supply their wants. The vegetable kingdom also supplies man with many materials for the useful arts which he practises.
If the animal and vegetable kingdoms are thus beneficial, the mineral kingdom is not less so. Without the fruitful soil, and the materials that form the crust of the earth, neither animals nor vegetables could exist; nor could tools be fashioned to convert substances to useful purposes without fire. In the three kingdoms there is nothing superfluous, nothing deficient, the meanest substance has its use, and all are essential to the completeness of the whole.
USE OF CLASSIFICATION. NATURE.
Kingdoms Each of these kingdoms is again subdivided into secondary sections, classes, orders, and genera. By means of classification, the labour of becoming acquainted with a vast number of natural objects is rendered easier than it otherwise would be, and their characters are more readily remembered.
Nature By a very common figure of speech Nature is personified and put in the place of the Supreme Being, from whom all objects spring. The works of nature the order of nature the operations of nature, are phrases which are unexceptionable when used in this sense, because they carry up the devout mind to the Great Author of all, while the constant repetition of His sacred name is avoided; but these phrases are much to be deprecated when used, as they sometimes are, for the purpose of avoiding all seeming recognition of an intelligent and beneficent fist cause, 'in whom we live, and move, and have our being.' Vartys Easy Introduction to the Animal Kingdom.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON. 101.
Animals Lessons 4378.
Plants - Lessons 7990.
Minerals Lessons 95100.
we possess The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lords: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. Psa. cxv. 16.
Means of life everything that contributes to the prolongation of life, by preserving and sustaining our physical system.
Health see Lesson 188. The blessing of health is most valuable, and to preserve it, we are as much bound to guard against illness as to seek its removal when it has seized upon us.
Food animal and vegetable; the former including animals of air, earth, and water; the latter, grain, seeds, roots, fruit, &c.
Clothing produced from animal and vegetable materials. See Lessons 28 32.
Materials the varied substances which give employment to man, woman, and child.
kingdoms of nature kingdoms, a fanciful term, applied by Linnaeus to the three great divisions of natural history. Natural history differs from natural philosophy, inasmuch as it is founded upon observation, rather thin upon experiment and calculation.
animal kingdom the study of animals includes zoology, anatomy, physiology, pathology, and therapeutics.
Whale the Greenland whale reaches, when full grown, from 70 to 76 feet in length, and the largest sperm whale about 85 feet.
Elephant the general height is about 8 feet 6 inches, measured at the shoulder.
Lady-bird - the small destroyer of the aphis or plant louse.
vegetable kingdom its history includes botany and vegetable physiology.
towering pine there are about forty species of pine, varying from 4O to 200 feet in height.
humble moss mosses seldom exceed a few inches in height, while many are very minute.
mineral kingdom treated of in the sciences of geology and mineralogy.
fruitful soil the soil is not of equal fruitfulness in all parts; but nearly the whole is sufficiently fruitful for the various requirements of the husbandman.
Materials that form - distinguished by the terms primary, secondary, and tertiary strata.
could exist that is we could not exist as a civilised people; as the want of those conveniences which art produces from the earths treasures would have left our race in an uncultivated condition.
Tools we should have to struggle with such tools as sharp flints for knives, hard-edged shells for hatchets, stones for hammers, and so on.
Fire the effect of combustion; once reckoned as one of the four elements, but now the cause of its existence is a subject of dispute.
Meanest the moat insignificant to hasty observers.
Essential hence we see the importance of everything that exists. It has been truly said, that the Creator in his arrangements for the comfort, happiness, and sustenance of man, has placed in the most systematic and best adapted order, in situations most easily accessible, and in astonishing profusion, the substances most essential to the support and comfort of human life.
QUESTIONS 101.
What knowledge do we obtain from the preceding lessons?
What are natural objects?
What do you mean by the "means of life"?
What are the kingdoms of nature?
Prom what sources does man derive food?
Is this advantage yielded only by the larger animals?
How else does the vegetable kingdom prove of use to man 7
What animals besides man are benefitted by plants?
What is the third kingdom of nature ?
Are minerals useful?
In what respect is it true that animals are sustained in life by means of the mineral kingdom?
To what, then, are vegetables and animals indebted for existence?
Is the soil equally fruitful in all places?
Next to the fruitful soil, what would you name as being necessary?
What do you know of fire?
What do we not know?
What are we enabled to do by means of fire?
Then this earth teems with riches of all kinds. Is there not a superabundant supply?
Amidst this abundance, are there any deficiencies?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What sub-divisions has each of these kingdoms?
Whet advantage is gained by classification?
How does classification facilitate the acquisition of extensive information?
What circumstances, for example, are true in the case of all birds?
In regard to the term Nature, what habit of using it is to be guarded against?
In what manner does the careless introduction of such phrases as these the works of nature the order of nature, &c., lead to error?
What class of individuals might be expected to select for use expressions of this kind, because of their tendency to induce error?
Under what circumstances is It desirable a encourage the use of such phrases?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 102. Animal Substances. (Imports.)
In addition to the animal substances supplied by our own country for arts and manufactures, which are not only numerous in kind, but vast in quantity, we import many substances from various parts of the world.
We import the furs of many beasts from North America, Russia, and Canada; wool from Spain, Saxony, and Australia; hides from Russia and Brazil; feathers from Hudsons Bay; eider-down from Norway and Iceland; and ostrich feathers from Africa; silk from France, Italy, and the East; mohair from Angora, in Asia Minor; bristles of swine from Russia, Prussia, and Poland; ivory from Africa and the East Indies; whalebone and oil from the Arctic Seas; tallow from Russia and Brazil; tortoise-shell from the coasts of Asia and the West Indies; horns of the ox, goat, sheep, deer, and buffalo, from Russia, Brazil, Africa, the East Indies, and America; honey and wax from the ports of the Mediterranean Sea; spermaceti from the Polar Seas; isinglass from Russia; quills from Riga and Hamburg; cochineal from Mexico; lac from the East Indies; coral from the coasts of the Mediterranean; pearls and mother-of-pearl from the Persian Gulf, Arabia, and Ceylon; sponge from the coasts of Greece and the Red Sea; shagreen from Astracan and Persia; ambergris from Madagascar; musk from Siberia; guano from the coasts of South America; bones from Germany and Brazil.
Some animals yield materials while living, other substances cannot be obtained till the animals are dead.
We import many manufactured articles of silk, leather, hair, and wool from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and the East.
We also import many living animals, especially oxen, calves, sheep, and swine, from the continent of Europe, and articles of food, such as eggs, butter, cheese, beef, pork, bacon, hams, lard, tongues, &c., from various parts of Europe, Africa, and America.
FURS, WOOL, SILK, COCHINEAL, CATGUT.
Furs From the coldest climates of the earth.
Wool From countries favourable to the pasturage of sheep.
Silk From the countries of the mulberry tree.
Cochineal The insect which constitutes cochineal feeds upon two species of cactus; the value of the several varieties known in commerce depends chiefly upon the methods employed to kill and dry the insects. As cochineal represents a large value in a small bulk it is sometimes used by merchants for making remittances.
some animals yield, &c. As the cow, milk; the bee, honey and wax; while furs, hides, tallow, &c., cannot be obtained while the animals that supply them are living. There is a substance called catgut which is used for the strings of certain musical instruments, the cords of clock-weights, and those of some other machines. This dense, strong animal substance is made from the intestines of cattle and sheep; the muscular coat of which is carefully separated from the other membranes.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 102.
Furs as those of sables, beavers, squirrels, martens, chinchillas, foxes, fur seals, &c.
Spain all our finer wools were at one time imported from Spain; the most famous breed of sheep was the merino. The quantity imported at present is small.
Saxony the Saxony wool supplanted the Spanish wool. A few merino sheep were imported by the Elector in 1765; these increased, and the quality o the wool improved upon the parent production.
Australia the wool imported from Australia reached, in 1849, the vast amount of 38,879,170 lb.
Russia that cattle are very abundant is evident from the large quantities of tallow and hides received from thence.
Brasil only a small part of this immense country is cultivated, but it has extensive natural pastures, with innumerable herds of cattle; hence hides form a staple article of export.
Hudson Bay these feathers are chiefly those of wild fowl, which require great care in dressing to remove the unpleasant smell of the oil they contain.
Norway and Iceland the north is the locality of the eider duck. Immense flocks of them may be seen along the lines of the coast, especially at night, their feeding time.
Africa it is chiefly for the feathers of the wings and tail that the ostrich is hunted.
Silk China is undoubtedly the country where the silkworm was first reared and silk first spun, whence it was introduced into Spain, France, and Italy.
Angora the ancient Ancyra. The hair of the Angora goat is silky.
Bristles the common hog is most extensively spread throughout Europe; the herds of swine are semi-tame. In 1852, the quantity exported from St. Petersburgh alone amounted to upwards of 2,000,000 lb.
Whalebone in the jaw of the common or Greenland whale there are upwards of 300 plates of whalebone; the quantity of oil obtained from its blubber is considerable.
Horns - they are chemically composed of albumen, gelatine, and phosphate of lime. When softened by heat they are pressed into moulds of various forms.
honey and wax abundant In the islands of the Grecian Archipelago.
Spermaceti from sperma (Gr.), seed, and ketos (Gr.) a whale; an oily fluid found in a cavity on the right side of the nose of the sperm-whale, amounting to a ton weight in large animals, This fluid concretes after death. About 90 or 100 gallons of sperm oil is obtained from the fat of a large animal.
Isinglass a gelatinous substance prepared from the sound or air-bladder of the sturgeon and other fish.
Quills Riga is the capital of Livonia; this old commercial town exported 39 tons of quills in 1849.
Iac there are three kinds: stick-lac, the natural state; shell-lac, purified lac; and seed-lac, the stick-lac separated from the twigs.
Coral found in the ocean adhering to stones, shells, &c.
Pearls a concretion found in certain shells; the richest pearls are found on the coasts of the island of Ormuz, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. The fishery at Ceylon takes place only once in seven years.
Sponge from spoggos (Or.), sponge. The importation is generally from Constantinople, the capital of Turkey, but once the chief city of the Grecian empire.
Shagreen It is used to cover cases of instruments. Astracan is noted for manufactories of leather cotton, silk, &o.
Ambergris an animal substance found on the coasts of Java and other warm countries. It is supposed to be a morbid secretion of the spermaceti whale.
Musk obtained from a peculiar sac in the abdominal region of the musk-deer.
Guano spelled huano in Peru; an excrement of sea-fowl, much valued as manure; brought especially from the Lobos Islands.
QUESTIONS 102.
Is every article we use the production of our own country?
Whence do we import from?
What do we receive from Spain, Saxony, and Australia?
Prom what countries are hides imported? Whence do we get feathers? elder-down?
ostrich feathers? silk? mohair? bristles? ivory? whalebone? oil? - tallow? tortoiseshell? horns? honey? wax? spermacetl? isinglass? quills? cochineal? pearls? sponge?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
From what kind of countries are furs got?
Why are these countries favourable to the production of this article?
When informed that wool is imported largely from Spain, what conclusion do we form as to the nature of that country?
Whence is silk obtained?
What is cochineal?
What curious monetary use do merchants occasionally make of it on account of its great value?
Name useful materials obtained from living animals.
Name some that are not procurable till after the animals death.
Give me some information respecting cat-gut.
SECTION XIII. OF SUBSTANCES.
Lesson 103. Vegetable Substances (Imports.)
Our vegetable imports consist chiefly of timber, fancy woods, dye woods, dyes, roots, barks, oils, gums, resins, leaves, flowers, seeds, nuts, kernels, flax, cotton, and hemp.
Considerable supplies of oak are imported from Canada, Norway, Italy, and Styria; teak, for shipbuilding, from Malabar; deal from the ports of the Baltic, from Canada, and America. Of fancy woods, mahogany is brought from Africa, Honduras, and Spain; rose-wood, king-wood, and zebra-wood, from Brazil; satin-wood from St. Domingo and the East Indies; cedar from North America and the West Indies; box from the south of Europe; and ebony from the Indies. All these and other fancy woods are used in fine cabinet work.
The chief dye-woods imported into England are log-wood, from the shores of Mexico, and Jamaica, used for producing black and purple colours; fustic from the West Indies, Mexico, and Brazil, for yellow; and, mixed with other dyes, green, drab, and olive; Brazil-wood for red ink and red dyes; sumach, from Sicily, for dyeing leather; sandal-wood, from India and the South Sea, for reddish-brown colours.
Weld, obtained from the South of Europe and from the Levant, is used in dyeing yellow; wood, grown in England, and also imported from the continent, in dyeing blue; arnatto, a pulp extracted from a West Indian shrub, in dyeing red; the roots of madder, obtained from Cyprus and Smyrna, for the scarlet dye called Turkey-red; alkanet, the bark of a root which is imported from France and the Levant, is chiefly used for colouring oils and ointments; turmeric, used in dyeing yellow, is obtained from the East Indies; indigo, the most valuable of the blue dyes, is prepared from a plant of Hindostan; it is the chief commercial product of India.
The barks of oak and larch are imported from the Baltic for tanning; walnut-bark, from the Black Sea and America, for dyeing brown; and quercitron bark, from North America, for dyeing yellow; the bark of the cork-tree, from Spain, Portugal, and Italy, for making corks; that of the lime-tree, for bast mats. Peruvian bark, employed in medicine, from Peru and Quito; cascarilla bark, also employed in medicine, from Paraguay; cassia and cinnamon, from a species of the bay-tree, in the island of Ceylon.
The leaves of plants extensively imported are those of senna, from Upper Egypt and Arabia; tobacco, from the West Indies and America; and tea, from China.
VEGETABLE IMPORTS - TEAK, MAHOGANY, INDIGO.
our vegetable imports The commerce with our numerous colonies, our Indian possessions, and foreign countries is principally in articles furnished by the vegetable kingdom viz., cereals of different kinds, as rice, maize, &c; vegetables for preparing dietetic drinks, as tea, coffee, cocoa, &c., spices, condiments, drugs, dyes, oils fruits, fibrous substances, timber, and fancy goods. Some of these demand cultivation, others are the luxurious and spontaneous growth of nature in tropical forests and jungles, such as sandalwood and ebony.
Teak mahogany - The teak-feller of India, and the mahogany-cutter of Honduras, must not be regarded as cultivators of the soil.
Indigo This is one of the tropical plants which not only requires careful cultivation, but also much experience, in order to extract the colouring matter from the leaves. It has been ascertained that seventy plants are required to produce one pound of the colouring matter, and that at the altitude of 1,620 yards the plant produces less colour.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 103.
Teak - a tree of uncommon size; Its leaves are 20 inches long and 16 broad; It can never become a forest tree in our cold climate, but on the banks of the Irrawaddy, in Birmah, the teak forests are extensive.
St. Domingo, or Hispaniola one of the West India Islands, remarkable for its former fertility, but owing to neglect it has greatly declined in its products. Its mahogany and dye-woods form its principal wealth.
Cedar from several species of pines; the Bermuda red-cedar is much used in cabinet-work and for lead pencils.
Ebony the ebenus of the Latins, and the ebenos of the Greek; all the species are large and are found chiefly in the tropical parts of Asia and America.
Logwood also called campeachy wood; it is found on the shores of Campeachy and Honduras; though Jamaica produces this wood in abundance, that of Campeachy is preferred.
Fustic a species of mulberry, chiefly from the islands of Jamaica and Cuba; that of Cuba is best. It gives a muddy yellow colour.
Brazil-wood once an object of royal monopoly by the Portuguese government; this name was given it because it was abundant in that country at the time of its discovery.
Sumach not only found in Sicily, but in the South of France; it is sometimes used instead of fustic.
Sandal-wood a fragrant wood growing on the coast of Malabar; it is a native of the Indian Archipelago.
Weld - a biennial herbaceous plant; it is cultivated in many parts of France, and is found wild in our own country. The cultivated kind yields a larger supply of colouring matter than the wild. The mignonette is of the same genus.
Woad known also as dyers weed; it yields a blue pigment, and was used by the ancient Britains to stain their bodies; it is now greatly superseded by indigo.
Arnatto "a pulp;" this tree is common in Jamaica, and is found also in Java and Sumatra; it produces oblong pods, which burst open when ripe and display a crimson farina or pulp.
Madder this cheap and durable red dye is much used In dyeing calico, linen, and woollen cloths; it is one of the few vegetables that yield a red colour.
a1kanet also called "dyers bugloss;" It is used for colouring lip salve, and port wine.
Turmeric in the East it is more used as a condiment than as a dye.
Indigo Marco Polo is the earliest European traveller in China and India who has mentioned the Indigo plant. He lived in the 15th century. The use of this valuable dye was for a long time prohibited by several European governments.
Barks for many years the tanners of England would only use oak-bark; but at last they were compelled to yield to the evidence of eminent chemists, that other barks contained "tannin," the active principle of oak bark.
Cork most abundant in Catalonia and Valencia; the tree is an evergreen oak. The cork is in reality dead bark, hence its removal inflicts no injury on the tree. Cork is the most buoyant in water of all woody substances.
Cassia It has been thought that cassia was the inner bark of the old branches of the cinnamon, but this appears incorrect.
Cinnamon the finest is from the three yeas old branches. After being carefully cleansed it is rolled into tubes.
Tobacco the most extensively used of all the narcotics.
QUESTIONS 103.
Of what substances do our vegetable imports consist?
Whence do we obtain oak? teak? - deal? - mahogany? rosewood? kingwood? zebra-wood? satin-wood? cedar? ebony?
For what purposes are the above woods severally used?
From what places do we import logwood? - fustic? Brazil-wood? sumach? sandal-wood? weld? woad? arnatto? madder? - alkanent? &c.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Which of the kingdoms of nature contributes in the largest proportion to our homeward commerce?
Enumerate some of the articles, we import for which we are indebted to this kingdom.
For what reason must the phrase "cultivators of the soil," exclude from within it the mahogany-cutters of Honduras?
Who else must be excluded on the same ground?
How is tea a source of expense previous to being gathered?
In what manner do we in England benefit by the existence of tropical forests and jungles?
From what parts of the world is Indigo obtained?
What double demand does Indigo make upon its producer?
What important alteration takes place in the plant when removed a certain distance above the sea-level?
State the range within which the plant will grow without the occurrence of this alteration?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 104. Resins and Gums. (Imports.)
The chief resins and gums imported from foreign lands are common resin, imported from Norway, and used in making inferior kinds of sealing-wax, and in soldering lead; camphor, a production of several trees, but especially of a species of laurel, which is abundant in China; copal, from the East Indies and America; mastic, from Scio and the Levant; both used in making varnish; gum-benzoin, or frankincense, from Java, Sumatra, and Siam, chiefly used in perfumery and for fumigating; myrrh, a fragrant, bitter, aromatic gum-resin, from a tree in Arabia, used in many medicinal preparations; aloes, a bitter resinous drug, of which three kinds are imported from Socotra, Barbadoes, and the Cape of Good Hope; assafoetida, a gum-resin from Khorassan in Persia, obtained from the roots of a large umbelliferous plant a valuable medicinal drug, but nauseous both in taste and odour; balm of Gilead, the juice of an Arabian tree, which resembles turpentine.
The yellow pigment called gamboge, is yielded by a large tree, which grows in various parts of India; it is used in medicine as a purgative. Gum-arabic, which is useful in medicine, and in many of the arts, exudes from a species of acacia, and then hardens; it is imported from Turkey, India, and Africa. The New Zealand flax yields a gum which is admirably adapted for sealing letters; it will not dissolve either in water or spirits; it penetrates the envelope of a letter so as to become a part of its substance. Caoutchouc, or India-rubber, is an exudation from several trees which abound in South America; it is the material which has recently been introduced so extensively in waterproof and elastic clothing; and is also useful in effacing black-lead pencil marks. Gutta-perchca is another vegetable exudation, imported from Sarawak in Borneo, and from Singapore; it softens in hot water, and hardens when cold; it has been recently employed in many arts, but is less elastic than India-rubber.
RESINOUS AND GUMMY SECRETION5 OF PLANTS.
resins and gums Most of these important secretions of plants are obtained from tropical regions, chiefly from Asia, Africa, and the islands of the southern seas. Resins are soluble and gums are insoluble in alcohol, (spirits). Gums are soluble and resins are insoluble in water, Some of these secretions are of a mixed nature, and are called gum-resins; they are partly soluble in water and partly in acohol.
The cheapest gum, called British gum, or dextrine, is obtained from roasted starch. It is largely used in calico printing. Of the gums the one most in demand is gum arabic, the chief supplies of which are yielded by India, Egypt, America, and South Africa. Of the resins, turpentine and lac are of the greatest value to us. Spirit of turpentine, procured by the distillation of impure turpentine, is used in dissolving resins, and in mixing and drying paints. Lac is produced by the injuries inflicted upon the young shoots of certain plants by an insect which feeds upon them. It Is used in the making of varnishes and sealing wax.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 104.
Resin from reho, rheuso (Gr.), to flow, because it flows; resins are vegetable secretions. Common resin or rosin is obtained from the pine. The forests of Norway are very extensive, and constitute the principal wealth of the country.
Gums goma (A.S. and Sp.) gomme (Fr.), gummi (Lat.), kommi (Gr.), of unknown origin.
soldering lead rosin prevents the formation of oxide (rust) during the operation, otherwise perfect metallic union would not be secured.
Camphor the laurel which yields camphor grows to the size of the British oak; the roots furnish the largest supply. The tree also grows in Sumatra, Borneo, Japan, &c.
Copal obtained from a species of sumach; the tree is native in Mexico. Copal is insoluble in water.
Mastic from a species of pistachio. Scio is also called Chios.
Levant from levant (Fr), rising; lever, to rise; and this from levo (Lat.); eastern, the part where the sun rises.
Varnish a solution of resinous matter which soon hardens, generally transparent.
frankincense from frank, free, and incense, an odoriferous exhalation, made by fire to some deity, deduced from incendo, to burn; free incense, or incense freely offered; obtained from the gum-Benjamin tree.
Myrrh - from murra (Gr.), deduced from muron (Gr.), perfume, ointment; obtained from different species of Balsamodendron. Arabia has long been noted for its odoriferous productions. Myrrh is also a product of Ethiopia.
Aloes from aloe (Gr.), an aloe, supposed to be derived from als (Gr.), the sea, because it flourishes near the sea; the finest kind is obtained by evaporating the juice which flows from the succulent leaves when cut.
Assafoetida produced only, it is said, in the fields and on the mountains round Herat, the capital of Khorassan.
Balm of Gilead there are two kinds, one which, called the balm of Mecca, is produced by spontaneous exudation, and is never exported; that obtained by boiling the branches is the balm of commerce.
Gamboge the tree which produces the juice is of low stature, and grows in Siam, Cochin China, and Ceylon. There are two kinds; the finer is called pipe camboge, and the inferior, cake camboge.
Gum-arabic - obtained from several species of acacia, and varying somewhat in quality, according to the plant that yields the gum, and the locality.
New Zealand flax with the filaments of the leaves clothing and cordage are made.
Caoutchouc several American and Asiatic plants yield this valuable product, which was called India-rubber, from its use in obliterating pencil marks.
Exudation - ex, out of, and sudo (LU.), to sweat, to emit a sweat; emission of moisture.
gutta-percha from gutta, a drop, a bar, a gum, and pertcha (or pertsha), the name of a Malayan forest tree. The gum exudes from tapping the bark of the tree. There are three known varieties. Gutta-percha was first brought to England In 1843, by Dr. Montgomerie.
many arts for ornamental mouldings, picture frames, surgical instruments, speaking tubes, medallions, tubing and suction pipes, soles for boots and shoes, &c. Its waterproof qualities have been fully established, and it has become, in a few years, a large branch of trade and manufacture. The quantity exported from Singapore, in 1844, was only 230 lb.; in 1845, 22,000 lb.; in 1846, 710,000lb.; in 1847, 1,200,000 lb.; and in 1848, 1,700,000 lb.
QUESTIONS 104.
Are resins and gums produced chiefly at home?
Whence is common resin obtained?
For what is it used?
Whence camphor? copal? mastic?
For what are they used?
Whence gum-benzoin? What is its other name?
Whence myrrh? Its use?
Whence aloes? How many kinds?
Whence assafatida? its use?
Whence balm of Gilead? gamboge?
What is yielded by New Zealand flax?
Whence is India-rubber obtained?
Tell me something about gutta-percha.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Where, for the most part, are the countries situate that furnish us with useful secretions of plants?
What is the main difference between gums and resins?
Whit is meant by the term gum-resin?
Which is the cheapest of the gums?
What use is made of it?
What countries yield gum-arabic?
Name the most important resins.
In what manner is spirit of turpentine procured?
What is its use?
How is lac produced?
From what country is it chiefly imported?
SECTION XIII. OF SUBSTANCES.
Lesson 105. Roots and Oils. (Imports.)
Many roots and oils are imported for their valuable qualities in medicine, in dyeing, and in paintings and for sundry other purposes. Some of these substances are brought in their native state, but most of them are prepared by being freed from all useless matter, or by being purified to fit them for immediate use.
The plants from which we obtain valuable roots are ginger, one of the most useful of the spices, which grows in several parts of the East and the West Indies; ipecacuanha, from which an emetic powder is prepared, is obtained from South America; gentian, a valuable tonic, grows wild in the mountains of Europe; and rhubarb, a tonic aperient, grows wild in Tartary. Orris-root has a fine violet odour; it is employed by perfumers in making both hair-powder and tooth-powder; perfumes are also obtained from the flowers, leaves, and juices of many other plants. Weld supplies a root which is extensively employed by dyers in producing a yellow colour, and in turning blues into green.
The roots of several kinds of trees are beautifully knotted and veined, and are used in the finest cabinet work.
The oils yielded by plants are very numerous; the most valuable is olive oil, exported from Gallipoli and Florence, and from some parts of France; it is consumed largely both in the native countries of the olive, and in other parts of the world. The best olive oil is obtained by bruising the nut, the common by crushing it. Castor oil, from the East and West Indies and America, is a valuable aperient medicine; the best is expressed from the seed when cold, the common from boiling the seeds before they are pressed. Linseed oil is obtained from the seeds of the flax-plant, and is imported in large quantities for the use of painters. Croton oil is a powerful medicine, which is applied both externally and internally. Oils are also obtained from almonds, walnuts, and several other kinds of nuts, as well as from many kinds of seeds.
OILS YIELDED BY PLANTS.
oils yielded, &c. Candlemakers, soapmakers, wool and cotton spinners use these oils In large quantities; they are also used by engineers for diminishing friction, especially for locomotives; also in the manufacture of paints and varnishes, for burning in lamps, as articles of food, in perfumery, and for medicinal purposes. A locomotive requires about 100 gallons of oil annually. Colza oil, which is yielded by the seed of a variety of the common cabbage, has come into extensive use in England for the moderator lamps; in France it is used for all the purposes of light-houses; the seeds yield 39 per cent. of oil; the hazel-nut yields 60 per cent.; the walnut 50 per cent., the almond 46, the olive 50.
The principal vegetable oils imported are palm oil, cocoa-nut oil, olive oil, and castor oil; of these palm oil is the chief. It is used for making yellow soap and for railway grease. Some tropical plants yield a natural substitute for soap in their leaves, seeds, fruit, roots, or bark; they are called saponaceous plants.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 105.
Medicine - from medeor, to heal; the art of healing.
Dyeing the art of imparting colours to textile fabrics.
Painting one of the fine arts.
Ginger "zinziber;" herbaceous and creeping plants, reed-like, and having a knotty root; found in the mountainous district of Gingi (whence its name), east of Pondicherry; it is also cultivated in China and Java.
Ipecacuanha obtained from the roots of several plants, differing more or less in their emetic properties; native chiefly in Brazil and New Granada. Exported in large quantities from Rio Janeiro.
Gentian the ornamental species are numerous; the drug is chiefly obtained from Gentiana lutea; though a bitter tonic, it is not astringent, nor very stimulating.
Rhubarb indigenous or cultivated in most of the colder parts of the earth.
tonic aperient from tonos (Gr.), tone, strength, and aperio (Lat.), to open; i.e., it has opposite effects on the bowels hence it is given in some cases of diarrhoea. Rhubarb is sold as an infusion, a powder, a compound tincture, and an extract.
orris-root belonging to the genus Iris; there are several species.
olive oil obtained from the pericarp of the Olea Europaea, not from the seed itself. It is the lightest of all the fixed oils, nutritious, but difficult of digestion. Olive oil is used by watchmakers, soap makers, as a salad oil, and for cerates and plasters in medicine.
Gallipolithis Neapolitan port is now, and has been for centuries, the great depot for the importation of olive oil.
castor oil this valuable medicine is expressed from the seeds of the palma Christi, Ricinus communis. It was known in ancient times by the Egyptians, Greeks, &c. The best is the "cold drawn," salts volatile principle is not lost by the process. It is transparent, and nearly colourless.
use of painters colours dissolved in laurel oil are used in parts of the continent to paint butchers shops with. Much meat is thus preserved from taint in summer, as flies avoid such shops.
croton oil the seeds are roasted before the oil is expressed; the plant Croton triglia is indigenous in Ceylon, the Moluccas, &c.
externa1ly rubbed on the skin it produces a pustular eruption.
Internally only in very minute doses, for if taken in large quantities it acts as an irritant poison. it is the most dangerous of drastic (active, powerful) purgatives.
Almonds expressed from the kernel of the Amygdalus communis, and the A. Persica; the former a native of Barbary, and the latter of Persia.
QUESTIONS 105.
For what various purposes are many of the foreign roots and oils imported?
In what conditions are they imported?
What plants yield us valuable roots?
Where does ginger grow?
Whence is ipecacuanha obtained?
For what is it used?
What is gentian valuable for?
Whence is it obtained?
Whence do we receive rhubarb?
For what is it valuable?
By whom is weld much used?
What are its properties?
Which is the most valuable of vegetable oils?
Tell me some of its applications.
From what places is it imported?
From what plant is castor oil obtained?
How is it prepared?
What is linseed oil?
For what is croton oil used?
From what other vegetable sources are oils obtained?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What classes of manufacturers use oil on a very large scale?
For what reason do engineers chiefly use it?
What quantity of oil is required for the annual consumption of a locomotive?
How can certain oils be said to have dietetic value?
What use does the painter make of oil?
What plant yields Colza oil?
What reason has the mariner, sailing night near certain coasts, to be grateful for the discovery of oil?
State the relative abundance in which oil is present in certain seeds.
What kind of oil is largely used in the preparation of soap?
For what other purpose is this oil much used?
What are plants called which afford a natural substitute for soap?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 106. Mineral Production.
The mineral substances and productions which are the most necessary for mans use and support are generally met with in the locality which he inhabits. But man also wants luxuries, and the higher his state of civilization the more extensive are his wants, till the whole earth can alone furnish an adequate supply. Thus the productions of all climates are obtained for his food, his condiments, and his clothing, for the arts and manufactures, and for the gratification of his personal and social desires.
The mines of England supply us with the most useful minerals, and especially coal, which enables us to convert the mineral ores to beneficial purposes to fabricate from them such implements as the people of this and other nations require. The mineral treasures of England enable its people to erect buildings and machinery, and to make fabrics suitable for the people of all countries. We obtain in exchange the gold of Mexico, of Peru, of California, and of Australia, the silver of Potosi, the quicksilver of China and Hungary, the marbles of Italy, the precious stones of the East Indies and South America, the pearls of Ceylon, and all the various treasures of the wide spread earth; among others the loadstone, a magnetic iron ore, remarkable for its property of attracting iron, which is abundant in the mines of Sweden and Norway.
Minerals are not only the source of great wealth and luxury, but also of daily convenience to the poorest individual. With iron his implements of labour are made; with tin the housewifes kitchen utensils are coated; with zinc, copper, antimony, and lead, many of the commonest articles are made: while gold, and silver, and copper enable him readily to exchange the products of his own labour for those of his fellow-men.
ORIGIN OF COAL.
Coal Nothing is more certain than that all coal was once vegetable. Its woody structure may be detected under the microscope in the coal itself, or in the burnt ashes which remain after it has been exposed to the action of heat, and has lost its bituminous and semi-crystalline character. The luxuriant vegetation of the early world, similar in kind to that which is now restricted to the tropics, was brought from the interior of dense forests by the rivers, and drifted by currents into basin-shaped depressions occurring in the limestones and sandstones that formed the sea bottom. Being soon covered by muddy or sandy accumulations, and subjected besides to pressure from the overlying water, the fibres were thus compacted and partly destroyed, and the glutinous, gummy juices of the crushed vegetables run together. In course of time upheaving forces came into play, and that which was sea bottom became land on which plants flourished and animals found food, and in which men digging arrived at the coal thus beneficently prepared for them.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 106.
luxuriesin one sense implying superfluity; it also expresses carnal excesses. In a limited sense it includes all the bounties of nature and conveniences of art in due proportion for enjoyment, not criminal indulgence.
Civilization society is progressive, as a glance at the social condition of our country and of the worlds history for the last few hundred years testifies.
all climates this is effected by commercial enterprise, by which distant nations and people have intercourse by traffic, and by the mutual interchange of natural riches or artificial conveniences, thus uniting men in one common bond of fraternal union.
personal needful for individual comfort.
Social necessary for the comfort and happiness of a community.
Coal the principal coal fields of England are 1, that of Northumberland and Durham; 2, the detached coal basins of North Yorkshire; 3, the coal field of South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Nottingham; 4, the coal field of North Stafford; 5, the Manchester coal field; 6, that of North Lancashire; 7, the Whitehaven coal field; 8, that of Ashby-de-la-Zouch; 9, the Warwickshire coal field; 10, that of Dudley; 11, the coal field of North Wales; 12, that of Colebrook Dale; 13, the immense coal field of South Wales; 14, the coal field of Somerset and Gloucester; 15, that of the Forest of Dean. Besides these there are extensive coal fields in Scotland, and in several of the counties of Ireland.
Fabrics from fabrico, to frame; England exports linen, cotton, and woollen cloths; glass, hardware, cutlery, pottery, lead, tin, iron, and various manufactures.
Mexico the gold mines are numerous, and the wealth of the goldsmiths of the chief city (Mexico) has long been proverbial. Mexico was taken by Cortez, in 1521.
Peru was first visited by Europeans in 1526, and soon after its conquest by Pizarro, in 1534, Lima was made the capital. More than 1,000 gold mines have, from time to time, been opened.
California one of the United States of America. Hernando de Grixalva was the first European who entered its bay. A few years ago it was almost a desert, now it is a busy mart of commerce and mining. During one week in 1850 gold dust to the value of 3,000,000 dollars was exported from its capital, San Francisco.
Australia the existence of gold in this vast country had long been inferred: but large quantities were not discovered till 1851; since which time ships have continued to arrive in England, bringing cargoes of immense value. The consequence has been a large emigration from almost every part of the world to Australia.
Potosia department of the republic of Bolivia; the Cerro de Potosi, a mountain 16,037 feet high, contains one of the richest silver mine, known.
Quicksilver from the district of Yun-nan, In China, and from Idria, In Carniola.
Marbles white from Carrara and Paros, yellow from Sienna, green from Verona.
Loadstone this natural magnet has the property of communicating its properties to iron and steel. The ore is found in iron mines in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, China, &c. The old orthography, lodestone, is most correct.
gold, silver, &c. as seen in sovereigns, half-sovereigns, crowns, half-crowns, florins, shillings, pence, &c.
QUESTIONS 106.
Where are mineral substances generally found?
Within what range may we generally find such things as are necessary to supply our wants?
How are the productions of all climates shown to be necessary for man?
What pre-eminence has England obtained from her mineral treasures?
Whence do we obtain gold?
Tell me something about Peru, California, Australia.
What do we obtain from Potosi?
Whence is quicksilver procured?
Whence are marbles obtained?
From what parts of the earth do precious stones?
What is the loadstone?
Where is this ore found?
What advantages are derivable from minerals?
How is the poor man benefited by the various metals?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What positive fact has been ascertained as to the origin of coal?
By whet instrument has the woody structure been detected?
How does coal lose its bituminous character?
Whence came the vast amount of vegetable matter which has formed our beds of coal?
How was it brought into the hollows which now form our coal fields?
Describe the supposed process of compression.
Would these beds of coal have been accessible to us had they remained where they first settled?
How were they brought within our reach?
What is the beneficial result to us?
SECTION XIII. OF SUBSTANCES.
Many substances which were formerly thrown aside and considered useless, or pernicious, are now made profitable: other substances, the value of which was not known former1y, are now employed in many arts and manufactures.
The worn-out saucepans and other tin wares of the kitchen are cut into strips, punched with small holes, varnished with cheap black varnish, and sold to the trunk-maker, who uses them to protect the edges and angles of his boxes. The smaller portions are sold to the chemist, who dissolves them in acid to make a black dye for the calico printer.
From the offal of animals we obtain substances highly useful to the farmer and gardener, and in many of the arts and trades. Gold-beaters skin, prepared from the large intestines of the ox, is one of these.
The slag of the smelting furnace, which was formerly carted away at a heavy expense, is now readily purchased as one of the best materials for mending roads.
The fleeces of sheep are full of fatty matter, from which they must be cleansed before the wool can be sorted and combed. This process was formerly attended with great trouble and expense. In hot weather the grease infected the air of the neighbourhood where the washing was carried on. This grease, by the addition of potash and slacked lime, is now converted into soap, to wash the fleeces. Gypsies collect tea-lead for type-founders, and old ropes and rags for paper-makers. Paper is made not only of rags, but of burweed, dried potato-stems, thistle-stalks, and oat-straw. Worn-out woollen garments are torn to pieces at the shoddy-mill and made into coarse cloths; and broken bits of glass are re-cast at the glass-house.
MATERIALS FORMERLY LOST OR WASTED.
useless or pernicious The cinders from the ashpits of the brassfounders furnace, which were formerly carted away as rubbish at the expense of the tradesman, are now sold; they are found to contain a large percentage of metal which has been wasted or oxidized in the brassfounders processes; in some cases becoming incorporated with the fuel and forming clinkers. These ashes are washed, crushed, and ground, and then re-smelted. The ashes of plumbers, abounding in lead, and the dross of type-founders, much more valuable, are also made to yield the metal they contain, by re-smelting and refining. The smoke from the copper smelting furnaces, which in former times was deposited, with the copper contained in it, on adjoining lands, to the destruction of vegetation, is now arrested in tunnels and chambers where the smoke is consumed, and the copper precipitated and saved
A valuable medicinal oil is extracted from the liver of the cod-fish, that formerly went with other sweepings of the market to swell refuse heaps, and poison the atmosphere.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 107.
Useless that which cannot be made in any way available for promoting mans happiness.
Pernicious from perniciosus, destructive, deadly, compounded of per, through, and neco, to kill; injurious; many things are injurious when not applied to their proper uses; and many things that are at present considered injurious, are only so because their uses are unknown.
Formerly hence the propriety of making experiments with substances of little use, and whose properties are not well known, in order to add to our knowledge and convenience.
gold-beaters skin prepared from the outer membrane of the large intestine of the ox. It is interposed, along with leaves of common parchment and smooth calf-skin, between the hammer of the gold-beater and the gold.
Slag the refuse or scum of the fused metal; being lighter than the metal, it rises to the top and runs off.
Smelting to smelt is to reduce to a liquid or fluid state; usually applied to the melting of ores; smaelta (Sw.), smelta (Dan.), melt-an (A.S.), to melt.
Purchased from pour-chasser (Fr.), to chase, to pursue, to hunt, and consequently to take, to obtain; in our old writers it signified to take (as thieves or robbers), its present signification is to obtain, acquire, buy.
Fleeces the fleece contains one of the necessary ingredients of soap fat; hence by the application of an alkali soap is produced, which cleanses the wool.
Lime from lim-an, ge-liman (A.S.), to glue or fasten together.
Gypsies wandering people found in most countries of Europe; supposed by some to be of Egyptian origin, and by others to have come originally from India at the time of Timour Begs invasion of that country. The latter opinion is the one now most commonly received.
type-founders they who cast or "found" type. Moulded metal types were first introduced by Caxton into England. Type founding is now performed by a division of labour with great quickness.
ropes and rags they are first cleansed, then torn to fragments, reduced to a
pulp, and then suffered to flow on shallow frames, which limit the size.
burweed, straw, &c one of the London weekly papers is regularly printed on paper made of straw. Common kinds of paper are made of the other materials named in the lesson.
Shoddy-mill these mills are chiefly situated at Dewsbury: the spikes of the machine rapidly convert old cloth into shreds; these shreds are mixed with a certain proportion of common wool, and woven into carpets, druggets, trouserings, &c.
glassthere are five kinds of glass, viz., flint, crown, broad, bottle, and plate glass. The casting of the first kind commenced in England in 1557, and that of the last in 1673. Newcastle and Shields are the chief seats of the glass manufacture.
QUESTIONS 107.
Why were many substances formerly thrown aside as of no value?
Are any of these substances now considered useful?
Mention some of them, and the uses to which they are put.
What useful lesson may we learn from this?
What is gold-beaters skin?
For what is it employed? - How?
What is slag?
To what use is it put?
How are the fleeces of sheep now cleansed?
What inconvenience resulted from the former mode of cleansing them?
What are the Gypsies?
What waste materials do they collect?
Of what substances is paper made?
What is the use of a shoddy-mill? - How does it act? - What is the effect?
How are the woolly particles afterwards used?
Do you know of any other kinds of refuse that are made useful?
What are the different kinds of glass?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT N0TES.
What use does the brassfounder now make of the cinders of his furnaces?
What are "clinkers"?
To what process are the ashes now submitted?
What other classes of metal workers hare found it profitable to adopt a similar disposal of furnace ashes?
What results on vegetation formerly attended the free egress of smoke from the furnaces of copper-smelting works?
By what means are these effects now avoided?
In what manner does the change act beneficially to the copper-smelter?
State an instance illustrative of its beneficial operation.
What used to be done with the liver of the cod-fish?
What use is now made of it?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 108. Materials of Little Value.
Many materials of little value are made into beautiful articles, or otherwise rendered useful. Buttons are made of clay, which look like real stones; and precious stones are imitated in glass.
Beds and mattresses are stuffed with the waste of factories called flock; tailors shreds are made useful, and strong garden-chairs are made of straw and hazel-rods. Grate-ornaments are made from shavings of wood, and from paper of different colours; and thus inexpensive materials acquire a value.
The ammoniacal liquor of gas-works used to be conveyed away from the premises by drains; it now finds a ready sale for agricultural purposes. The sewer-water of large towns has long been suffered to run to waste, and endanger the health of the inhabitants; it will doubtless be collected hereafter, and used to fertilize the land. The hoofs of horses and cattle and horny refuse are made into prussiate of potash, that beautiful yellow crystallized salt, which may be seen in druggists shops.
Only the larger bones of animals were formerly considered of any value; they were sold to the turner, who produced a variety of toys from them, handles for knives and brushes, paper-knives, &c.; but the smaller parts were considered as useless rubbish. Now it is known that the smallest portion of bone contains fertilizing matter, which renders it a valuable manure; consequently the bits, the shavings, the scrapings, and the dust, are usefully employed.
Cobalt, which yields the valuable blue of that name, was formerly troublesome to the miner, and also to the metallurgist, as it gave a blue colour to German silver; its separation from the nickel, of which German silver is made, improves the metal, and supplies a valuable pigment.
The drop of water which is spilt, the fragment of paper which is burnt, the plant that rots, all that appears to perish, is really preserved; the dust and ashes return to the earth, the smoke and vapour seek the atmosphere, and then return to the earth again.
PERFUMERY, ETC., FROM GAS REFUSE, ETC.
ammoniacal liquor, &c. The residual products of the coal used in gas-making consist of coke, tar, and ammoniacal liquor; the last named of these being one of the most offensive of known fluids. The lime, also, that has been used in purifying the gas, is become so disgusting by impregnation with ammonia, as to necessitate its removal by night when required for agricultural purposes. The coke and tar meet a ready sale, the former for fuel, the latter for the production of naphtha, by distillation. In addition to the use the farmer makes of ammoniacal liquor, it is converted into the reviving essence called smelling salts by the chemist, who also extracts from it a delicate perfume like violets, which is employed for scenting soap. The artificial oil of bitter almonds, so largely used in perfuming soap, and for flavouring confectionary, is prepared by the action of nitric acid on the foetid oils of gas-tar. The entire history of odours illustrates how the marvellous processes of chemistry convert apparently worthless substances into a source of profit.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 108.
Buttons - clay is combined with a small portion of flint or feIspar, to give it hardness. Ingenious and rapid modes of manufacture have been adopted; and so great was the demand for these buttons, that at one establishment 5,000 gross were made weekly.
precious stones these imitations are exceedingly skilful, and the requisite colour is imparted by metallic oxides.
Flock - or lock of wool, just as we speak of a lock of hair; applied to waste wool, of which the varieties fetch a high or low price according to their qualities.
Ammoniacal liquor this water is readily converted into sulphate of ammonia, a salt of much importance in agriculture.
Sewer water many suggestions have been made for collecting this wasted product, and fertilizing the earth with that which is prejudicial to health, and of late the preparation of manure from the sewage of cities has become a profitable branch of industry in some places.
prussiate of potash is a modified form of the alkali potash. Prussiate of potash (a combination of the cyanide, a pungent, alkaline precipitate with iron) is also known as ferrocyanide of potassiun, or triple prussiate of potash. Prussian blue is produced by a solution of this salt with a per-salt of iron.
Bones the bones are crushed, and passed through sieves of different sizes, producing inch bones, half-inch, and bone dust.
Fertilizing bones consist of earthy matters, together with gelatine and fat; their fertilizing power is owing to the phosphate of lime, which, with phosphate of magnesia, forms half their substance.
Metallurgist from metallon (Gr.), a metal, and ergon (Gr.), to work; one who treats metals and ores for the purpose of ascertaining their properties, and separating their alloys.
Alloy from allier (Fr.), to unite; a mixture of metals. By a proper admixture of metals they become adapted to purpose, for which in a pure state they are unfit.
German silver is an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc.
water spilt - if upon a porous soil, it will percolate it, and impart moisture; or it may unite with other drops or nitrations, which, meeting at a common point, produce a subterranean stream, and this again a spring, &c., &c.
fragment of paper the gaseous portion escapes into the air and unites with its "kind", while the more solid portion descends to the earth.
plant that rots - the decay of vegetable manures is less rapid than that of animal substances, and they are very valuable for the carbonic acid and saline matters which they supply.
dust and ashes they thus become the source of fertility; the ashes of coal are of the least value, but their charcoal and sulphate of lime are useful. The ashes of seaweed, turf, peat, weeds, and waste charcoal, have all valuable fertilizing properties.
Smoke - applied to the volatile bodies produced by combustion, consisting of soot, carbon, and gaseous exhalations.
Vapour being specifically lighter than air, it ascends; but when condensed, it returns in the shape of dew, ruin, hail, or snow.
QUESTIONS 108.
How are materials of little worth made valuable?
Tell me something about the making of clay buttons.
How is the requisite colour imparted to glass so as to imitate precious stones?
What do you mean by flock?
To what use is this waste material applied?
Mention other instances of the useful employment of waste materials.
How is the liquor of gas works made useful?
Is sewer water of any use?
For what purpose ought it to be used?
What evil arises from sewer water?
What is prussiate of potash obtained from?
How are bones prepared for manure?
To what do bones owe their fertilizing power?
What is a metallurgist?
Prove that even a drop of water is not lost.
How is a fragment of paper changed by burning?
How is the plant that rots of use?
What ashes are valuable for land?
Of what does smoke consist?
What becomes of vapour?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What are the residual products of the gas manufacture?
Which of these products is extremely offensive?
By what means has the lime used also become disagreeable?
What proof of its offensiveness have we?
For what purpose is the coke used?
What becomes of the gas-tar?
Who uses the ammoniacal liquor?
Into what other substances is it converted?
What delicate extract is also obtained from this offensive liquor?
For what purposes is the artificial oil of bitter almonds employed?
How is it prepared, end from what?
What do we learn from the history of the preparation of odours?
What economic advantages are manifest?
SECTION XIII. OF SUBSTANCES.
Lesson 109. Nothing is Useless.
John Smith was a poor discharged soldier, with a wooden leg: he had three sons; but though he was very poor, he contrived to educate them. He had seen a good deal of the world, and as he was too poor to put his boys to trades he gave them habits of industry, by setting them to gather all materials that were of little value, which he knew could be disposed of.
They were to collect bones, the larger to be sold to the turner, the smaller to the farmer: pieces of broken glass, to be sold to the glass-workers for re-casting: cow-hair and horse-hair for the plasterer and the upholsterer.
In summer they were to collect rose-leaves and elder-flowers for the apothecary, and any wild plants which he would purchase.
in autumn they obtained permission to gather wild fruits to make vinegar, and acorns and other seeds of trees, which they could sell to foresters and seedsmen: they also gathered horse-chestnuts, which were ground into flour, and sold to the bookbinders and card-board makers to make into paste.
In winter the old man and his sons occupied themselves in making besoms, chair-bottoms, and baskets of birch-twigs, rushes, and osiers, which had been previously collected. Thus, by labour and industry and carefulness, they saved money, and formed good habits.
When they grew older he sent them from home; they soon got employment, and their honesty, industry, an willingness made them useful and valuable to their masters In the course of years they returned to their father, having attained wealth, when they acknowledged to him that all their success was owing to his having so early taught them that nothing is useless.
ECONOMY IN NATURE.
nothing is useless In nature nothing is lost nothing wasted. there is ample provision for strength, while, at the same time, there is no waste of material. Take for instance, the straw of wheat; there is a heavy ear of corn, which has to be supported at a considerable distance from the ground on a slender stalk. If a mathematician were asked to calculate in what manner a certain quantity of material could be disposed to the best advantage, so as to combine strength with lightness, he would reply, Not as a solid rod, nor yet as a thin sheet; but as a hollow cylinder." And this is precisely what occurs in the wheat straw, where we have a hollow tube strengthened at intervals by knots. Moreover, the stalk of corn contains a considerable quantity of flint to strengthen it. Professor Faraday, when recently lecturing on ashes, showed that the proportion of silex in wheat-straw was about 67 in every 100, and he converted this silex into glass by burning a single straw in the flame of a spirit lamp, producing as the result a small globule of glass.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 109.
John Smith - John means grace or mercy; it is a very common name in all Christian countries. Smith, as a surname, is also very common. The late king of the French assumed the name of Smith when driven into exile by the Parisians, in 1848.
Discharged soldier soldiers enlist for specified terms of years. If they live in soundness of body and mind, to fulfil the periods of their respective engagements, they are free to leave the army; but if they lose their health, or receive injuries before their periods of enlistment have expired, so as to be unfit for duty, they are discharged, generally with a pension.
too poor... trades chiefly on account of the premiums, or fees, required by masters. In proportion, however, as the monopoly of charters and trades unions become obsolete, will such impediments to the industrious poor be removed.
habits of industry he well knew that idleness is the parent of vice; he knew, also, that what the wise man says is true of the increasing operations of nature, All things are full of labour. Therefore to preserve his sons from immorality, and to maintain, as far as possible, a respectful obedience to Gods will, he taught them to be industrious.
Cow-hair - it serves to bind the lime and sand which are mixed together to make mortar for plastering walls.
Horse-hair - for stuffing seats of chairs, sofas, and cushions of various sizes and uses.
Rose-leaves - the petals of the cabbage rose, and other red roses, are used in the distillation of rose-water; the hip of the dog-rose for a confection.
Elder-flowers for the making a distilled water, which is used as a refrigerant. It has been said that the elder tree is a magazine of physic to rustic practitioners. Of the inner bark ointments are made; infusions of the leaves used for fomentations. The juice of the berries, when fermented, makes a pleasant wine.
Wild plants the virtues of wild plants are various and important. Most of them, when cultivated, undergo considerable modification of their properties.
Vinegar from vin (Fr.), wine, and aigre (Fr.), sour; in wine countries vinegar is obtained from the acetous fermentation of wine; In the United Kingdom, it is generally obtained from malt.
horse-chestnuts - the term horse-chestnut arose from the circumstance that the Turks generally ground them for mixing with the ordinary food of their horses.
saved money not from those motives that actuate the miser, but from principles of economy, prudence, and thrift.
Honesty from honestas, honour; dignity of mind and character, probity. The best test of good principles they maintained good conscience before God and man.
industry from industria, diligence, sharpness, thoughtfulness, painstaking. One of the best evidences of good training, they ate not the bread of idleness.
Willingness stubbornness and self-will, which cause the ruin of so many young people, were unknown to them.
Returned not as the prodigal son, who had spent all that his father had given him, and then returned utterly destitute.
acknowledged they gave the praise to him to whom it was due. This grateful acknowledgment of their obligations to their aged parent, was just to him, honourable to themselves, and pleasing to God.
so early, &c. Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. SOLOMON.
Nothing is useless how vast, then, are the treasures of this world of ours, that even seeming nuisances, when rightly applied, contribute to the increase of human happiness, Surely thou O Lord, bait made nothing in vain!
QUESTIONS 0N FOOT NOTES.
What circumstances are uniformly characteristic of the works of nature, in contradistinction to works of art?
Mention a vegetable structure which forcibly illustrates this.
What consideration must be taken into account in estimating the wisdom that framed it?
In what manner would a mathematician dispose a certain quantity of material, so as best to combine lightness and strength?
Show how the wheat-straw complies with these conditions.
What advantage is gained by the presence of mineral matter in wheat-straw?
In what proportion is it present?
Explain bow the experiment of Professor Faraday proved his position that straw contained the mineral named as one of its elements.
SECTION XIV. THE AIR AND THE HEAVENS.
Lesson 110. The Earth and the Universe.
Although the earth seems to us to be a flat, extended, and immoveable surface, it is a globe or sphere, composed of land and water, and is continually in motion.
The earth is a sphere, for if we are at sea and watch a vessel approaching from a distance, we see the top-masts first, then the lower sails, and as it draws nearer, the hull of the ship; whereas, if the earth were flat, the whole vessel would be visible at once.
The sun, which appears a small circle of fire, is one million three hundred thousand times bigger than our earth. The reason of its appearing so small is that it is at a distance of 95,000,000 of miles from the earth. Although it appears to revolve round the earth once in every 24 hours, yet the earth in reality revolves round it once in 365 days.
Many planets are revolving round the sun as well as our earth: two of these are nearer to it than the earth, but all the rest are further off. Some of these planets, like our moon, revolve round other planets, as well as round the sun. The former are called primary, the latter secondary planets.
The fixed stars are suns at inconceivable distances from the earth. It is generally supposed that each fixed star is the centre of a system, with planets revolving round it, which are warmed and illuminated by its heat and light. Light from the nearest of the fixed stars is about three years in reaching the earth, though it travels at the rate of 12,000,000 of miles in a minute. Planets may be distinguished on a clear night by the steadiness of their shining. Fixed stars may be known by their continual twinkling.
The height of the atmosphere which surrounds the earth is said to be fifty miles; it is the medium of light and heat; it can be heard in the wind, and felt in the cold, but it is colourless and transparent.
CONVEXITY OF THE EARTH MAGNITUDE OF THE SUN.
watch a vessel It is clear that something intercepts the full view of the approaching vessel. The surface of the water is uniform; it has no inequalities like the surface of the land; it must, then, he its convexity which prevents our seeing the distant vessel. Since the same effects are to be observed from whatever direction the ship may approach, it will follow that the same convexity must prevail every side.
the sun The sun and full moon appear to be of the same size. But the distance of the moon from the earth is only 240,000 miles, while that of the sun is 100,000,000 of miles, or 400 times further than the moon. If the magnitude of the sun were no greater than that of the moon it would assuredly appear 400 times less at 400 times a greater distance. We therefore come to the irresistible conclusion that the un is four hundred times greater in its diameter than the moon. So vast must be its bulk, when we know that if the diameter of one globe be outside that of another, the bulk of the former will be eight times that of the latter!
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 110.
Globe - from globus, a globe; a body bounded by one uniform convex surface, every part of which is equidistant from a central point.
Motion from moveo, moturn, to move; for its several motions, see Lesson III.
Visible from visus, which may be seen, from video, visum, to see or look.
Sun its presence constitutes day, and its absence night. These changes must have very early attracted the attention of mankind. At the rate of 50 miles an hour, it would take 217 years to travel from the earth to the sun.
Revolve from re, again, and volvo, volvere, to roll, turn round, traverse a circuit.
in reality the apparent, not the real, motion is expressed in popular language, but this, though technically incorrect, is not a source of error, and circumlocution is avoided by the common phraseology.
Planets from planaomia (Gr.), to wander; hence planetes (Gr.), a wandering (star). Planets are, to us, luminous bodies, which traverse orbits around the sun as our own planet (or wandering star) does. Other stars seem to be immoveable, and hence are distinguished as fixed stars.
two (planets) Mercury is nearest the sun; it performs its revolution in nearly 88 of our days. Venus is the next, known as the morning and evening star; it performs its revolution in nearly 295 of our days. These are sometimes called the inferior planets.
the rest from re, back, and sto, to stand; that which remains. After our own planet, the earth, which is next to Venus, the following is the order of the planetary bodes:
Mars (Juno, Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, &c), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The planets which revolve without the earths orbit are sometimes called superior planets.
Some ... planets Jupiter is attended by four satellites, Saturn has seven moons, and Uranus is accompanied by six satellites.
Primary from primus, first or chief; they have already been enumerated.
Secondary from secundus, second, either In number or degree; next, but inferior.
fixed stars nearly all the fixed stars within the observation of astronomers are mapped, classified, and catalogued. For convenience they are grouped into constellations, and bear arbitrary names, merely for the purpose of fixing their number and locality in the memory.
system from sustema (Gr.), a complex whole, compounded of sun, together, and hustemi (Gr.), to stand. The sun, with all the planets which revolve round it, are included In the term solar system. By analogy, therefore, it is concluded, that those stars which appear stationary must form the centres of motion to myriads of lesser bodies moving round them.
Steadiness thus indicating that their light is inherent, as in our sun, not reflected as the light of our moon.
Atmosphere from atmos (Gr.), vapour, and sphaira (Gr.), a sphere; it revolves with the earth. A presumption in favour of such a limited atmosphere arises from the fact that a rapid decrease of temperature is observed as we recede from the surface.
Medium of light - from medium (Lat), middle; the space through which a body moves in passing from one point to another. It receives the suns rays, and both refracts and reflects them over the surface.
medium of heat by reason of this property the suns beat, so to speak, is in some degrees equalized, water is evaporated, and suspended until some counteracting influence causes it again to descend.
heard in the wind wind is the air in rapid motion. Heat is equalized by winds.
felt in the cold cold is the result of the evaporation of caloric, or heat, from the lower portions of the atmosphere; for a reduction of temperature always accompanies a rapid evaporation.
transparent from transpareo, to see through; that may be seen through.
QUESTIONS 110.
How is the earth different to what it seems to be?
How is it proved to be a sphere?
What is the suns distance from the earth?
How long should we be in travelling from the earth to the sun at the rate of 50 miles an hour?
Which are the inferior and which the superior planets?
What do you mean by primary planets, and what by secondary?
What are the fixed stars supposed to be?
Why is this inferred?
Tell me some of the properties of the atmosphere.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What difference is noticeable between a surface of land and one of water?
With what sequence of parts does a distant ship come into view when approaching a spectator on the sea-margin?
What form of surface must lie between the spectator and the ship in order to prevent the entire vessel from being seen?
What is the moons distance from us?
What proportion does this bear to the suns distance?
Supposing the sun and moon to be of the same size, still occupying their present places in space, what alteration would there be in our perception of them?
From knowing the magnitude of one of these orbs, and the distances of both how can we calculate the magnitude of the other?
What difference of bulk is there in two globes, whose diameters are as one to two?
Assuming that the sun and moon are of the same apparent size, and knowing their distances, it is required to state their relative bulk?
SECTION XIV. THE AIR AND THE HEAVENS.
Although the earth appears to us to stand still, and all the heavenly bodies to be revolving round it, yet, in truth, the earth itself is continually in motion, both round the sun and round its own centre.
The centre about which the earth revolves is always the same, and may be represented by thrusting a rod through an artificial globe, or a wire through an orange, and turning the globe or orange continually in one direction. The centre about which the earth thus revolves is called its axis, and the parts where the axis meets the surface of the earth, the poles. As every straight line has two ends, so the axis of the earth has two poles upper and under the upper or north end of the axis being called the North Pole, and the under or south end of the axis the South Pole.
The axis and poles are only imaginary, the names having been given to distinguish them from other parts of the earth.
The poles are not turned either directly towards, or directly from the sun, but are in a slanting position. If either of the poles were pointed towards the sun, one half of the world would always be immersed in light, and the other half in darkness. If the earth turned on its axis with its equator directly pointed to the sun, each part would have a regular succession of light and darkness, but no variation of seasons. The poles, however, are in a slanting direction, and as the earth revolves round the sun, each part is alternately presented to, and turned from it.
By the annual circuit of the earth round the sun, in the inclined position described, we enjoy the changes of the seasons.
The earth has inequalities of surface, occasioned by its mountains and valleys, but these are so trifling, considering its vast bulk, as not to be compared with the irregularities on the rind of an orange. It has also been ascertained that the earth is flattened at the poles, but so slightly, that if a model were constructed of its exact shape, and fifteen feet in diameter, our eyes could not detect that the model was not a perfect sphere.
APPARENT MOTION OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES.
heavenly bodies Three facts may be noticed respecting the motion of heavenly bodies: l. To us, in the northern hemisphere, they all describe parallel circles about the North Pole. 2. They all complete their circuit in the same time, returning to the same position every twenty-four hours. 3. This circular motion is perfectly uniform; each circle, i.e. each 360 degrees, is described at the rate of 15 degrees per hour, or 1 degree in every four minutes. This apparent motion of the heavens round the North Pole is owing to the earths rotation. As the earth moves from west to east once in twenty-four hours, about its axis, passing through the two poise, this sufficiently accounts for the apparent motion of the heavenly bodies from east to west about the pole; for a motion of the earth round its axis from west to east would evidently make the stars appear, to any observer on the earths surface, to move about the same axis in the contrary direction. Manuai of Geographical 8cience.
Slanting The axis is inclined about 23 degrees out of the perpendicular, thus all parts of the earth equally enjoy the benefit of the sun, and are alike deprived of it.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 111.
appears to stand the vast disproportion that exists between the size of the earth and the human form (taken in connexion with the localization of the atmosphere) is the reason why we are not able to observe the motion of our planet.
appear to resolve this optical illusion may be illustrated in several ways, such as sitting in a swift sailing boat, and while looking at the objects on shore to abstract the sight from the vessel itself.
round the sun each revolution is denominated a year. See Lesson 112.
round its centre thus causing the succession of day and night (Lesson 112). The diurnal motion is completed in 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds, according to mean time.
Centre centrum (Lat.), from kentron (Gr.), a point; that point from which the circumference is everywhere equidistant..
Axis axis (Lat.), axon (Gr ), from ago, to drive or act; that round which any thing rolls or revolves.
north pole from polos (Gr.), a turning point; so called on the hypothesis of the earths rotation upon an imaginary axis passing from north to south.
south pole called the antarctic pole, because opposite to the north or arctic pole.
Imaginary - from imago (Lat.), an image, a figure; though the poles, as points of motion, are imaginary, the general fact of the revolution of the earth from their localities is established.
slanting position the extreme southern or northern parts are not at any time directly opposite the sun, but inclined towards it one pole during one portion of the year, and the other pole during the other portion.
one half...light &c. as may be illustrated by holding a small globe or orange in the light of a candle, thus showing half the sphere in light, and the other half dark.
Immersed from in, in, and mergo, mersi, to plunge; a figurative expression, as though light were a sea hence we read, a flood of light., &c.
Equator equator (Lat.), so called, because equally distant from the poles, and dividing the globe into two equal parts.
no variations of season the earth travelling round the sun, and presenting itself differently to it at different times of the year and day, passes through the varieties of day and night, summer and winter, which we enjoy. The temperature of any part of the earth's surface depends mainly on its exposure to the suns rays. Whenever the sun remains more than 12 hours above the horizon of any place, and less beneath. the general temperature of that place will be above the average; when the reverse, below. Herschell.
annual circuit it preserves its direction to the sun the same throughout the year.
inequalities as hills, mountains, table lands, valleys &c.
flattened the polar diameter of the earth is 26 miles shorter than the equatorial one. On a globe of 3 feet in diameter the polar diameter would be about one-tenth of an incher shorter than the diameter at the equator: so small a difference would not be perceptible to the eye.
Model from modulus (Lat.), diminutive of modus, a mode or fashion, a copy, image.
QUESTIONS 111.
Is the earth motionless In the heavens?
Which are its chief motions?
What is the axis of the earth?
Represent this supposed axis.
What are the poles?
What would be the result of having either pole directed to the sun?
What is their real position ?
Describe the advantages we receive from this position.
On what does the temperature of any part of the earth mainly depend?
What are the inequalities of the earths surface?
Is the earth a perfect sphere?
At what parts does it vary from this regular shape?
What do you mean by the polar diameter?
What by the equatorial diameter?
What is the difference in the length of these two diameters?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
In what direction do the heavenly bodies move ?
What figures do their movements describe?
How happens it that these figures are parallel?
Within what time does each of the heavenly bodies return to the place from which it started?
What is characteristic of the speed with which they travel at different parts of their journey?
What degree of variation can be detected in the periods within which the heavenly bodies go their rounds?
What causes this apparent moving of the heavenly bodies?
In what direction does the earth move round its axis?
What does this account for in regard to the movement of the heavenly bodies?
Why?
What advantages accrue from the circumstance of the earth having an inclined axis?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 112. Motions of the Earth.
The earth has several motions; but there are two especially interesting, called its annual and its diurnal revolutions.
The annual revolution of the earth is the journey it performs round the sun, which takes 365 days, or one year. Its diurnal revolution is that which it performs round its own axis in twenty-four hours, or once every day. The annual revolution of the earth causes the changes of the seasons; the diurnal revolution causes the alternations of day and night. The great circle in which the sun APPEARS to move is called the Ecliptic.
The earth is sometimes spoken of as two hemispheres, or half spheres. The one hemisphere lies to the east of us, and is called the Eastern hemisphere. It includes Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, besides the Indian Ocean and other large collections of waters. The other hemisphere lies to the west of us, and is called the Western hemisphere. It includes North and South America, the West Indies, and the greater part of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. When it is day in one of these hemispheres it is night in the other.
But another way of dividing the earth into hemispheres is into North and South. An imaginary line, called the Equator, produces this division; as the earths position is inclined, the sun does not shine always opposite the equator, but sometimes on one side, and at other times on the other side of it. As either pole is turned most towards the sun, that hemisphere receives most light and heat; it is then summer with its inhabitants. As either pole is turned more away from the sun it becomes winter. Thus, when the sun is opposite the northern hemisphere, it is summer towards the North Pole, and winter towards the South; and when the sun is opposite the southern hemisphere, it is summer towards the South Pole, and winter at the other. The days at the equator are always twelve hours long, whatever may be the position of the sun in the ecliptic.
The earth moves round its own axis at the rate of sixteen miles in a minute at the equator, and at the rate of 68,000 miles an hour round the sun.
ROTATI0N OF THE EARTH.
sixteen mile, a minute, &c. When a globular body rotates or turns round upon an axis, and when it does so freely, this axis always passes through its centre of gravity, or the centre of the matter which it contains; it must be apparent to every one that, though the whole globe turns round as one mass, the different parts of it must move with very different velocities. The extremities of the axis of rotation, or the poles, as they are usually termed, considered as mere points, simply turn round in their position without performing any circular motion through space. The equatorial parts, or parts midway between the poles, perform, during every rotation, a circular journey in space, equal to the circumference of the globular body at that part; and this, in the case of the earth, is its greatest circumference, and measures nearly 25,000 miles; which answers very nearly to the rate of 1,000 miles an hour, being very little more than 16 miles a minute. Mudie's, Natural Philosophy.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 112.
two especially the one round the sun, and the other, like the motion of a spinning top, on its own axis.
Annual revolution from annus, a circle, because the earth traverses the same path (or orbit) year after year, arriving at the same given point in the heavens as it had started from twelve months previously.
diurnal revolution see Lesson 111. The time of this revolution is measured by the period of two transits of a given star over the same meridian.
Ecliptic from ecleipo (Gr.), to leave off to disappear, is derived ecleipsis, a waning, a falling off, an eclipse; hence ecliptic, so called because eclipses can happen only when the moon is in or near this circle.
two hemispheres from hemisus, half, and sphaira (Gr.), a sphere, half sphere.
changes of seasons (this subject 18 best explained, by one of the well-known diagrams representing the different appearances of the earth in its orbit at different times of the year.)
east of us but including our own country.
Europe embracing the following countries: the British Isles, France, Portugal and Spain, Italy, &c.
Asia Arabia, Persia, Hindostan, &c.
Africa including Egypt, Lybia, Ethiopia, &c. The greater part of this continent is unknown to Europeans.
Australia New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, &c.
Indian Ocean its chief islands are Java and the other Sunda Isles, Sumatra, Borneo, &c.
Western hemisphere its existence was first made known to the people of Europe by the discovery of Columbus. The probable existence of a western continent was a subject of ardent speculation by many geographers before his time.
North America from the isthmus of Darien to the North Pole, and embracing Canada and other portions of British America, the United States, Mexico, &c.
South America extending from the isthmus of Darien to Cape Horn, its most southern extremity.
West Indies the isles of Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti &c.
Atlantic the vast ocean included between the western coast line of Europe and the eastern shores of North and South America.
Pacific distinguished into North and South, and situated between the western shores of America and the eastern boundary of the eastern hemisphere.
Equator from aequo, to equalize; to divide into equal parts, as the equator does the earth.
then summer at which season the sun is farthest from the earth; for heat is not occasioned by the nearness of the sun, but by the directness of its rays.
becomes winter the position of any part of the earth during its winter is such that the suns rays fall so obliquely as to lose their power of imparting much heat.
QUESTIONS 112.
Describe the diurnal motion of the earth.
In what length of time does the earth perform Its annual revolution?
What changes are caused by the earth's diurnal motion?
What are the two hemispheres of the earth called?
What are the principal countries of Europe? of Asia? of Africa?
What are the continents of the Western hemispheres called?
Who has the credit of having discovered America?
What are the chief countries of the Western hemisphere?
What relation as to time does light or darkness bear to each hemisphere?
What part of the globe would you call the northern hemisphere?
And what part the southern?
What phenomenon occasions the heat of summer and the cold of winter?
When it is summer with us, where is it winter?
At what rate of motion does the earth travel round the sun?
QUESTIONS 0N FOOT NOTES.
What is meant by rotation?
In the case of a body rotating freely, through what point must the axis pass?
Why?
Why do the different parts of a rotating body move with different velocities?
Which part will move with the greatest velocity?
What amount of travelling, due to the earths rotation, do residents on the line of the equator go through between sunset and sunrise?
What number of miles do they accomplish each minute?
How does it happen that all this travelling is constantly being performed, and yet we, the travellers, are unaware of it, in the sense in which one in a carriage is aware of its motion?
SECTION XIV. THE AIR AND THE HEAVENS.
Lesson 113. The Equinoxes and the Solstices.
The zodiac is an imaginary circle in the heavens, which is divided into twelve equal parts of thirty degrees; each of these divisions is called a sign. The apparent places of the sun, of the moon, and of such of the planets as were formerly known, are always within the zodiac.
At two periods of the year day and night are of equal length all over the world. These periods are called equinoxes or equal nights. At two other periods of the year scarcely any visible alteration appears in the length of the day for more than a week together. These periods are called solstices, or sun-standings, because the sun then appears to stand still in the heavens.
The equinoxes fall in the middle of spring and in the middle of autumn, when the north and south poles are equally distant from the sun; the rays of the sun then fall directly on the equator, and the days and the nights are equal all over the world. The vernal or spring equinox, in the northern hemisphere, falls in the middle of autumn in the southern; and the autumnal equinox, in the middle of spring in the southern.
After the turn of winter, the sun appears to rise every day more to the northward, to be more elevated at mid-day, and to continue longer above the horizon till the middle of June. This time of the year is called the summer solstice. Shortly after the twenty-first of June the sun appears to rise a little nearer to the south daily, to be less elevated, and to remain a shorter time above the horizon; this continues till the middle of December, when the days are longest in the southern hemisphere. This time is the winter solstice. The end of the summer is warmer than its beginning, from the accumulated heat in the earth, arising from the long days and short nights; and the end of winter is colder than the earlier part of it, in consequence of the absence of the sun during the long nights, and its little power in the day.
THE EQUATOR, ECLIPTIC, EQUINOXES, ETC.
Equinoxes The equator is that circle of the apparent celestial sphere which is in all points equally distant from both poles; there is another circle through which the sun appears to move, called the ecliptic. The day and night become equal on the arrival of the sun at the equator; from the same cause this circle is sometimes called the equinoctial The intersections of the equator and the ecliptic are called the equinoxes; the vernal equinox being that in which the sun is when about to rise into the northern hemisphere, and the autumnal equinox that in which the sun is then about to sink into the southern hemisphere.
Solstices The solstices are those points in the ecliptic which are highest above the equator, at which, the sun's motion in declination being imperceptible, the days remain sensibly unaltered in length, as if the sun absolutely stood still
Twenty-first of June The length of the day with us is about 16 and a half hours; to dwellers within the arctic circle the sun never sets at this time.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESS0N 113.
Zodiac from zoon (Gr.), an animal, is derived zodiakos, of or belonging to animals, the zodiac, the line in the heavens through which the sun appears to move. This line is marked by twelve signs, which take their denominations from different animals. The twelve signs of the zodiac were intended to represent some remarkable natural occurrence in each month of the year, as the sun was passing through his annual circuit. The first three months from the vernal equinox (March, April, May), were remarkable for the production of those animals which were the most employed and valued, viz., sheep, kine, and goats. The lambs came first, which are represented by their parent, the ram(Aries); next the calves, represented by the bull (Taurus); then the kids, which commonly came in pairs, twins, (Gemini); but instead of twin kids, the Greeks substituted the twin brothers, Castor and Pollux. In the fourth month (June), the sun has arrived at the summer solstice, and begins to go back again to the southward, and the Egyptians expressed this retrograde motion by the crab (Cancer), which is said to go backward. The excessive heat, which usually follows in the next month (July), is expressed by the lion (Leo), for its fierceness and strength. The symbol for the harvest month (August) is the virgin reaper (Virgo), with an ear of corn. When the sun arrives at the autumnal equinox (in September), it is expressed by the balance or scales (Libra), in equilibrio, because the days and nights are then everywhere equal. October was a sickly month, and the symbol was the scorpion (Scorpio), whose sting is deadly. The diversion of hunting, in November, is signified by the archer (Sagittarius). As the crab going backward signified the summer solstice, when the sun begins to go back from the northern tropic, so the goat (Capricornus), which delight to browse up hill, is the symbol of the winter solstice, when the sun, in December, begins to ascend from the southern tropic, and is continually mounting for the ensuing half year. Aquarius, or the watering-pot, fitly represents the rains and snows of winter (January); and the two fishes (Pisces) appear to refer to the commencement of the fishing season in February.
Equinoxes from aequus, equal, and nox, night. The sun at these periods occupies six hours in ascending, and six hours in descending; and the days and nights are of equal lengths.
Solstices from aol, the sun, and sto, stas, steti, to stand still. At these periods the sun is at his greatest distance from the equator. The apparent standing of the sun is the result of the obliquity of the earth's axis.
middle of spring the vernal equinoctial point (that wherein the ecliptic end equator intersect each other) is at present under "Pisces;" formerly it was under "Aries."
middle of autumn the autumnal equinoctial point of the constellation Libra. The intersection of the equator by the ecliptic is not always at the same point; it is constantly receding, contrary to the order of the signs of the zodiac.
Vernal from ver, veris, spring.
Horizon from horos (Gr.), end, limit, is derived horizo, to limit, to bound, whence horizon, the extreme line or circle which limits or bounds the view; it indicates that line which seems to unite the earth and the sky. The rational horizon i.e. that great circle which divides the earth end the heavens into two equal parts, called the upper and lower hemispheres. The rational horizon (which is imaginary) is moreover a plane passing through the centre of the earth parallel to the sensible horizon to which a plumbline is always perpendicular.
QUESTIONS 113.
Is the length of the day and night ever the same all over the world?
What are those periods called?
What is the meaning of the word equinox?
What is understood by the term solstices?
When do the equinoxes occur?
What direction does the sun appear to take after the winter?
When does its gradual elevation seem to cease?
What change in the position of the sun begins after the summer solstice?
When does its declination cease?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What Is the equator?
What Is the ecliptic?
For what reason do not these circles coincide?
Under what conditions are the days and nights of equal length?
Which great circle on the earths surface is called the equinoctial?
Why does it get this name?
At what periods of the year do the equinoxes occur?
What difference is there betwixt the equinoxes of the northern and southern hemispheres?
How often do the solstices occur?
At what parts of the suns course do they take place?
How is the term solstice descriptive of the phenomenon in connexion with which it is used?
What is the length of the longest day with us?
To what people does the sun never set at that time of the year?
CIRCLE OF KN0WLEDGE. GRADATION III
The moon is one of the most important of the heavenly bodies to us, as it serves to illuminate a large portion of our time, that would otherwise be totally dark.
Although the moon appears not much bigger than an ordinary globe, yet it is in truth more than 2,000 miles in diameter. Although the moon appears nearly as big as the sun, it is more than sixty millions of times less. And although it shines so brightly, yet it only shines with a borrowed light: the light of the moon being only a reflection of the light of the sun.
The moon revolves round the earth once in every twenty nine days, at a distance of nearly 240,000 miles, and accompanies the earth annually in its circuit round the sun.
When the moon is between the earth and the sun, she is then invisible from the earth, as her light side is turned towards the sun, and her dark side towards the earth. A few days after she has the appearance of a crescent, the western side only, or that next to the sun at sunset, being visibly luminous; the crescent fills up, and when she is a week old she appears as a half moon; at the end of another week she is opposite to the sun, and shows her whole disc, which is called the full moon. After the full, she decreases in size nightly, and in another week, only the eastern half appears enlightened; the lighted portion continues to decrease until seven days after, when she is again between the earth and the sun, and invisible from the earth.
Among the ancients the moon was treated with great respect, and was worshipped by many nations. The Hebrews regulated their time by her motions, and observed the new moons as festivals. The changeable appearances of the moon are frequent, regular, and worthy of observation.
THE LIGHT OF THE MOON REPLECTED LIGHT.
borrowed light The moon is a dark body like the earth, and derives all its light from the sun. It likewise derives a faint light by the reflection of the suns rays from the earth, in the same way as we derive a mild light from the moon. The moon is diversified with inequalities of surface similar to the earth. It is owing to these Inequalities that the light of the sun is reflected from it in every direction; for if the surface of the moon were perfectly smooth, like a polished globe, her orb would be invisible to us, except perhaps at certain times, when the image of the sun reflected from it, would appear like a bright point. This may be illustrated: place a silvered globe, perfectly polished, in the sun; the rays which fall upon it being reflected variously upon the convex surface, will come to our eye only from one small bright spot; but the rest of the surface will appear dark. Let this globe be boiled in the manner used for whitening silver, to deaden its brightness, and it will appear luminous all over, every point of the surface reflecting the rays of the sun in every direction. - Abridged from Dicks Celestial Scenery.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 114.
Moon or lesser light, called by the Greeks Selene, and by the Italians Luna. It is the earths satellite (from satelles, an attendant, or follower), and is the source of many interesting phenomena.
Illuminate from lumen, light, comes illumino, to enlighten, or shed light upon. It receives in return the reflected light of the sun from the earths surface.
2,000 miles its diameter is 2,161 miles.
Diameter from dia (Gr.), through, and metron (Gr.), a measure; a straight line passing through the centre of a sphere or circle, and terminated both ways by its circumference, dividing it into two parts.
Reflection from re, back again, and flecto, flectere, to bend; caused by the rays of light being repelled or driven back from the surface of the body on which they fall.
moon revolves the exact time from one new moon to another is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2 seconds.
Distance from dis, apart, and sto, to stand. She is the nearest of all the heavenly bodies to the earth.
Accompanies - hence its year is the same as ours, its revolution round the sun being accomplished in the same time.
Between the earth, &c. during this period of concealment the phase denominated the new moon occurs.
Days after i.e., if the sky be clear.
Crescent - from crescens, growing, participle of cresco, to grow; increasing, waxing; the state or form of the moon when on her increase. Till near its full it is seen on the eastern bide of the sun. The symbol of the Turkish power is a crescent, assumed to indicate that it was a dominion destined to grow until complete by embracing the world.
Sunset at the (apparent) descent of the sun below the horizon.
Half-moon - being 7 and a quarter days old, and about 90 degrees distant from the sun. The crescent has now become a semicircle of white light.
Disc - from discus, a quoit, a plate; the complete circle of the moons (or sun's) surface.
Full moon - the moon is then said to be 14 and half days old, or a little more. It now declines towards the western side of the sun.
Decreases from de, from, crescens, increasing; i.e., diminishing in size.
again between thus a lunation, or lunar month, is completed, consisting of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2 seconds.
with great respect as being next to the sun in importance. The Orientals regulate their journeys by this orb which they commence soon after her change.
Worshipped under the names of Venus, Queen of Heaven, Urania, Diana, Hecate, Succoth-tenoth, Ashtaroth, &c.
Hebrews the descendants of Abraham, so called because their great ancestor emigrated from Mesopotamia to Canaan, the word eber meaning to pass from the other side.
regulated from rego, regere, to manage, to set right; hence regularis, made or arranged according to rule.
festivals the beginning of each lunar month was called neomenia, or new moons day. Trumpets were blown, special services performed, and a holiday enjoined; probably to call the attention of the people to the transition of time.
Changeable these appearances are denominated the moon. phases, from phasis (Gr.), appearance; they are 1, crescent; 2, semicircle; 3, gibbous; 4, full.
QUESTIONS III.
Which of the heavenly bodies next to the sun is of the greatest importance to us?
By what circumstance is its importance shown?
What is the diameter of the moon?
What relation does its size bear to that of the sun?
Is the light of the moon its own?
How is the light of the sun falling on the moons surface made of service to us?
What is the supposed distance of the moon from our world?
What time does it occupy in its revolution round our globe?
At what time is the moon invisible to us?
Describe the changes of the moon.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What kind of body is the moon?
What is the difference betwixt the moon and the sun, in regard to each being a source of light?
In what manner does the earth assist the moon in imparting light?
Supposing a polished silver globe received upon it the suns direct light, from how much of its surface would an observer receive the reflected rays?
In what manner could a change be produced upon the globes surface so as to make it appear luminous all over?
Explain how this occurs.
From the circumstance of the moons whole disc appearing luminous what conclusion do we form respecting the nature of Its surface?
What change would be necessary to pass upon its surface so as to render its appearance in the heavens merely a bright point, similar to a star?
SECTION XIV. THE AIR AND THE HEAVENS.
The earth is surrounded by a thin fluid mass of matter, called the air or atmosphere, which revolves with it in its daily motion, and also accompanies it round the sun. One of the most useful properties of the atmosphere is its diffusive and reflective power, which causes the heavens to appear luminous when the sun shines. If the atmosphere had not this property, no objects would be visible to us that were not in the sunlight. The shadow of a cloud passing over the sun would leave us in pitchy darkness; the stars would be visible by day, and every apartment into which the direct rays of the sun had not admission would be in darkness; there would be no twilight; darkness would immediately follow sunset, and the brightest sunshine would follow darkness at sunrise.
The atmosphere has been proved to be one of the most necessary provisions for life of which we have any knowledge. Without it there would be no rain, no rivers or springs, no vegetation, no breathing, no existence at all for beings formed like ourselves. The extent of the atmosphere in every direction round the earth is nearly fifty miles, and it presses with the weight of fifteen pounds on every square inch.
A perfect stillness of the air is a profound calm; breezes and zephyrs are the air in gentle motion; a more rapid motion is called wind; as the wind gathers strength it becomes a storm; if furious, it is a tempest; if sudden, a squall; if prolonged and very violent in its effects, a hurricane; if two or more currents of air blow from different directions they produce a whirlwind; sometimes in the deserts of Africa there are sand-storms, which obscure the sun, and overwhelm travellers with their caravans of camels and horses.
PROPORTIONS OF NITROGEN AND OXYGEN IN THE AIR. FOOD OF PLANTS.
air or atmosphere The principal ingredient of common air is nitrogen, formerly called azote, the secondary ingredient is oxygen, sometilne8 called vital air; about four-fifths of nitrogen, and one-fifth of oxygen in volume, are combined in our atmosphere, which also contains other ingredients. Our breathing, and that of all other animals, fills the air with carbonic acid (carbon and oxygen combined). This carbon, together with that which rises into the air from the combustion of coal and other fuels, supplies the vegetable creation of all regions with the food they require, for without it they would cease to exist. A counter-operation is at the same time going forward, for the vegetables are giving forth the oxygen which we require, and without which the animal creation would languish and die. The above proportion of nitrogen and oxygen are the only combination of the two gases fitted for the support of animal and vegetable life. Thus the chemist reveals the mutual dependence of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and presents for our admiration and gratitude an example of the power and goodness of God.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 115.
Thin fluid it was supposed by the ancients to be a simple principle; hence they enumerated it among the four elements. Modern chemistry, however, has demonstrated that air is composed of two gases, viz.oxygen and nitrogen (called also azote), in different proportions. Chemists can separate these two gases.
Atmosphere from atmos (Gr.), vapour, and sphaira (Gr.), globe. We have no reason to conclude that air, such as we are acquainted with, extends throughout the universe; but we have reason to believe that it is a local elastic fluid; hence the propriety of the term atmosphere "the vapour which surrounds our sphere."
revolves with it hence it is a local or finite provision, adapted to the necessities of the beings that inhabit this earth.
Accompanies if it did not, the differences of climate, and the advantages resulting from them, could not exist.
Diffusive from dis, apart, and fundo, fudi, fusum, to pour; it extends all over the surface of the globe, and penetrates space generally.
Reflective it bends the rays of the sun in various directions, thus causing light before the rising and after the setting of the sun.
1luminous the light of the suns rays being diffused to the utmost limits of its extension.
no object...visible unless some other provision for the diffusion of light existed. It does not appear that the planet Jupiter possesses a finite atmosphere like ours; yet we are not to conclude that no substitute exists.
For life none of the terrestrial animals could live it deprived of air; end we may say the same of fishes, for the main use of their gills is to enable them to extract atmospheric air from their native waters.
no rain because there would be no vapours. Heat causes evaporation, but the vapours could not rise without this aerial medium of support.
no rivers, &c. as rain is vapour condensed in the atmosphere, so springs, &c., are caused by the fall of rain. Prevent the formation and ascent of vapours, and rain would cease.
no vegetation from vegeter (Fr.), to vegetate, probably deduced from vi agere (Lat), to act with force or power, to be vigorous. Place a plant under the glass receiver of an air pump, and exhaust the air, and this would be soon apparent.
no breathing in fact, no air to breathe.
no existence one of the conditions of animal existence consists in the inhalation of atmospheric air; other conditions have also to be fulfilled.
50 miles beyond this animal life could not exist. The space beyond is undefined, because unknown, and can never be explored by man.
15 lb., &c. this weight is borne by persons in health without inconvenience, because they are sustained by the same elastic fluid in their lungs.
Breezes either land or sea breezes; caused, no doubt, by the inequality of the suns action on the land and on the water. They occur daily on the coasts, and in the islands of warm countries.
Zephyrs from zephuros (Gr.), deduced from zoe, life, and phero, to bear, the bearer of life; applied to the west wind, because of its refreshing and invigorating Influence in tropical and other warm countries.
Wind caused by the contraction and expansion of the air; the current thus formed is denominated wind. The most remarkable winds are the "trade winds," which blow across the ocean in one direction for a long period.
Squalls occasioned by the sudden rarefaction of the air in any given locality, by the passing of a cloud, or other cause. Squalls are dangerous to the mariner.
Hurricane of frequent occurrence in hot countries.
Current from curro (Lat.), to run: used to denote a running stream of wind or water.
QUESTIONS 115.
What is the atmosphere?
Name one of its most useful properties
Show how this property is of importance.
Name some of the natural phenomena of our globe which depend upon the existence of the atmosphere.
What is its supposed extent?
Whet is the amount of its pressure?
Why do we not feel its weight?
What Is a calm? a breeze? a zephyr? a storm? a tempest? - a squall? a hurricane?
How is a whirlwind produced?
Whet effect attends the sand storms of Africa?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What are the principal and secondary ingredients of common air?
In what proportions are they present?
By what name was nitrogen formerly known?
What results from the union of carbon and vital air?
What indispensable part in the economy of creation is filled by this product of carbon and vital air?
What would happen were its supply to fail?
How is this contingency provided against?
In what manner is there a return of the benefit?
What marvellous circumstance is shown by the chemist in regard to the relative quantities in which the air contains its two principal ingredients?
What sentiment should fill the mind to which the chemist has revealed this truth?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Meteors are appearances in the atmosphere, which after a little while vanish away; they are sometimes luminous, as the rainbow, and sometimes watery, as fogs, mists, and clouds.
The most beautiful meteor with which we are acquainted is the rainbow. It is never seen but when there is rain, nor in any part of the atmosphere but opposite to the sun. The rainbow is produced by the reflection of light falling upon drops of rain. It consists of distinct arches of colour violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red, commencing with the innermost arch. Lunar rainbows, which are formed by the light of the moon upon a rain-cloud, have occasionally been observed, with all the colours of the solar rainbow, but much fainter, owing to the light of the moon being less intense than that of the sun. Halos are sometimes seen round the sun and moon, especially in northern climates, and in the colder months; they are supposed to be the refraction of the light of the sun or moon on frozen particles floating in the atmosphere. The aurora borealis, or northern lights, is a luminous meteor, which generally appears in the northern part of the heavens, and in frosty weather. It is usually of a reddish colour, and sends out gleams of white light; it moves with great velocity, increases and decreases in size, and assumes a variety of strange shapes. It is often accompanied with crackling and hissing noises. The aurora borealis is doubtless caused by electric matter in the atmosphere.
Lightning is another form of accumulated electricity, which sometimes produces terrific effects; by it human beings and animals are destroyed instantaneously, buildings set on fire, rocks divided, and forest trees riven. During thunder storms it is unsafe to stand beneath a tall tree or a high building, or near bright metals. The beneficial effects of lightning are great in clearing the air of noxious vapours. Clouds are watery meteors, varying in size and colour, according to their nearness to the earth, and the reflections thrown upon them.
CLOUDS ELECTRICITY THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
Rain Clouds are not necessary to the phenomenon of rain. Sometimes rain may be wafted by the wind from a distance, but it may likewise arise from the condensation of moisture, without its passing into the intermediate state of clouds.
Electricity Dr. Lardner says, The world of science is not agreed as to the physical character of electricity. According to the opinion of some, it is a fluid infinitely lighter and more subtle than the most attenuated and impalpable gas, capable of moving through space with a velocity commensurate with its subtleness and levity.
Artificial electricity is daily produced of precisely the same character as the lightning, and is applied to the service of man in various ways, especially in transmitting messages from one kingdom to another, as fast as they can be embodied in language. This application of electricity to the transmission of information is one of the most wonderful applications of modern science.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 116.
Meteors from meteoros (Gr.), high; this term is used to indicate the various phenomena of the atmosphere.
Rainbow its name indicates its form and time of appearance; it is caused by the refraction and reflection of the suns rays on the drops of falling rain.
Fogs fog (A.S.) from fog-an, to gather, to collect; a gathering or collection of vapour, steam, or mist.
Mists from mist, mistian (AS.), to darken; condensed watery vapours, which descend by their own weight, or are drawn up in exhalations by the action of the sun.
Clouds clouds have the same origin as fogs and mists; they differ only in their elevation and diminished transparency; their formation is materially affected by the action of winds; they rise to the height of two miles, but are generally lower; they are thus classified : l, cirrus, or curl-cloud; 2, cumulus, or heap-cloud; 3, stratus, or fall-cloud; 4, cirro-cumulus, the beauteous semblance of a flock at rest; 5, cirro-stratus, or wane-cloud; 6, cumulo-stratus, or twain-cloud; 7, nimbus, or rain-cloud.
Reflection from re, back, again, and flecto (Lat.), to turn, or bend; the act of turning or bending back.
Arches from arcus (Lat.), a bow; any part of a circle or curved line, similar in shape to a bow.
lunar rainbows they are in general white, or, if coloured, the colours are much fainter than those of the solar rainbow.
Haloes from halos (Gr.),a hollow circle round the moon; light concentric rings surrounding the sun or moon, sometimes faintly coloured.
Refraction from re, back, again, and frango, fractum (Lat.), to break; breaking the continuity of a line or ray, turning or reverting it out of its course.
aurora-borealis northern lights, northern day-break, or dawn, because its light resembles that which precedes sun-rise. This meteor is sometimes seen in the northern part of the heavens, and is reasonably supposed to be an electrical phenomenon. The same appearance, when it is observed in the high southern latitudes, is called aurora australis.
Luminous from lumen (Lat.), light; emitting light, shining.
Electric this is justly concluded from the magnetic needle having frequently exhibited violent disturbance when the aurora-borealis has appeared.
Lightning when its course is zigzag, it is called forked. This form shows that it is near terrestrial objects, and consequently dangerous. Sheet lightning, on the contrary, is considered not only harmless but beneficial.
terrific effects lightning conductors (of metal) are sometimes attached to buildings for the purpose of preserving them from the effects of lightning; they extend from below the level of the ground to a point a few feet above the highest part of the building.
clearing the air the equilibrium of the atmosphere is also restored, which had been destroyed by preceding changes. Rain generally fails, which refreshes the face of nature.
QUESTIONS 118.
What are meteors?
Where do they appear?
Into what classes are they divided?
Name one of the luminous meteors.
What are some of the watery meteors?
When is the rainbow seen?
In what part of the heavens does it shine?
How are its colours arranged?
Is the lunar rainbow as brilliant as the solar rainbow?
In what parts of the world, and at what seasons, are haloes most common?
What is the cause of this appearance?
What is the aurora-borealis?
Describe their appearance and other particulars.
What is the aurora borealis caused by?
What other form does electricity assume?
Are its effects of importance?
What is it necessary to remember when overtaken by a storm?
Why is It dangerous to stand under a high building or under a tree?
What benefits result from lightning?
What are clouds?
QUESTI0NS ON FOOT NOTES.
Under what circumstances could rain fail without the sky being clouded?
Betwixt what two conditions of water do clouds form an intermediate state?
What learned man assures us that the world of science is still undecided is to the physical character of electricity?
Mention an opinion with regard to the nature of electricity considered plausible by some inquirers.
What natural phenomenon exhibits the destructive power of electricity?
What instrument most efficiently presses into the service of man artificial electricity?
In what manner does the instrument avail him?
What high praise may be given to the inventor of this method of applying electricity?
SECTION XV. DIVISIONS OF TIME.
Lesson 117. Divisions of the Day.
In a day there are twenty-four hours, the time required by the earth to revolve once round its axis. The parts of the day are morning, forenoon, mid-day, afternoon, evening, night, and midnight. The daylight and the darkness in different parts of the earth are caused by those parts being turned towards or from the sun. At the equator the hours of daylight and darkness are always equal. In England, at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes only, the sun rises at six oclock and sets at six oclock, so that the days and nights are equal only at those times. At the summer solstices there are sixteen hours of light and eight hours of darkness.
The number of hours of sunlight and of darkness throughout the year, are equal in every country on the earth. The longest day in Iceland is twenty-four hours of continued light; the longest night is twenty-four hours of continued darkness. At the poles the longest period of darkness is six months, this is balanced by six months of light the remaining half of the year. In Palestine the longest day is thirteen and a half hours long. At Madrid there are nine hours daylight on the shortest day, and fifteen hours darkness; on the longest day these hours are reversed. At North Cape there are two months of constant darkness in winter, and two months daylight in summer; and at Spitzbergen four months darkness is compensated by four months continual daylight.
Twilight is the time immediately after sunset, and before sunrise, when the atmosphere reflects the light of the sun on the earth, and when it is neither dark nor light. Where the atmosphere is dense, as towards the poles, twilight prolongs the working time of every day.
THE EQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS. REFRACTION.
sunlight and darkness The balance of the hours of light and darkness in every country of the globe is one of those wonderful phenomena of nature which shows the equal goodnes8 of the Almighty to his creatures. Thus people living in a certain parallel of latitude north of the equator have the length of their days and nights exactly equal to those in the same parallel south of the equator, only that the days of the one are the nights of the other, and vice versa. The equatorial parts of the earth have the same number of hours of light and darkness as the poles, and no more; but at the equator each twenty-four hours is divided into twelve of light and twelve of darkness, while at the poles, the six months of light balance the six months of darkness.
twilight At twilight and dawn the sun is below the horizon, its rays strike the atmosphere above the horizon (which, be it remembered, surrounds the earth in every direction for about fifty miles) before they strike the earth, and the light from those rays is refracted, or bent, towards the earth causing twilight.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 117.
Day this word has various significations; the natural day is the period in which any heavenly body performs a complete revolution on its axis; the civil day is twice twelve hours, from midnight to midnight; the artificial day is the time between the suns rising and setting; the astronomical day is the time between two successive transits of the suns centre over the same meridian, which always begins and ends at noon, and is counted up to 24 hours.
Morning - the opening or beginning of each day.
Forenoon all that part of the day before 12 oclock is called in Latin ante meridiem (A.M.), from ante, before, and meridies (medius and dies), noon.
Midday also called noon. The sun is at this time at its highest point in the heavens.
Afternoon all that half of the day from 12 at noon to 12 at midnight is called post meridiem from post, after, and meridies, noon.
Evening the closing of day and the beginning of night.
Night the period of darkness; the time from the suns setting to his rising.
midnight twelve oclock, or twelve hours after midday.
rises at six exactly in the east, and continues twelve hours above the horizon.
Sets at six exactly in the west, and remains twelve hours below the horizon.
days and nights i.e., the hours of light and those of darkness.
summer solstice the hours of light at this time are exactly equal to the hours of darkness at the winter solstice; and the hours of light at the winter solstice are the same as those of darkness at the summer solstice.
poles darkness poles, from poleo (Gr.), to turn; but from September 22nd to November 12th, and from January 29th to March 22nd, there is twilight, which reduces the time of actual darkness to about two months and a half.
remaining half during this time the stars are never seen, and the sun appears to go round the heavens every 24 hours without setting, in circles nearly parallel to the horizon.
Compensated from compenso, compensare, to make amends, to recompense.
Twilight its duration is different at every different latitude of the earth. In the latitude of Greenwich there is no night from the 22nd of May to the 21st of July, but twilight from sunset to sunrise.
Dense from densus, thick; cold condenses air and makes it heavier, whereas heat rarefies it.
QUESTIONS 117.
What natural change is completed in twenty-four hours?
What period corresponds with midday?
When is midday?
When midnight?
How are daylight and darkness caused in different harts of the earth?
When does the sun rise at 6 AM. and set at 6 P.M. with us?
How many hours light have we at the solstices, summer and winter?
How many hours darkness are then left?
Is the average number of hours of light and darkness equal all the year round?
What is the length of the periods of darkness and light at the poles?
How many hours long is the longest day in Palestine?
What are the relations of light and darkness at Madrid? at North Cape? at Spitzbergen?
What is the effect of the dense atmosphere near the poles?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What discrepancy is there in the amount of light and darkness supplied to different countries of the globe?
What insight do we obtain from a consideration of this fact into the Almighty's mode of dealing with his creatures?
How does the principle above stated hold good in regard to two similar parallels of latitude on opposite sides of the equator?
How is a balance of light and darkness obtained at the poles?
How is the same purpose subserved at the equator?
When does twilight occur? What causes it?
How far upwards does the atmosphere extend?
Over what part of the earth does this height of atmosphere rise?
Were the earth without an atmosphere what alteration would occur with regard to the mode in which it receives light?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 118. Divisions of Time.
Some divisions of time are natural, and have always been the same in every part of the world; others are artificial, and therefore various at different eras and in different countries.
The natural divisions of time are the day, the month, and the year, caused by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies. The revolving of the earth round its own axis creates a day; that of the moon round the earth, a month; that of the earth and moon round the sun, a year. Artificial divisions are hours, minutes, seconds, weeks, calendar months, centuries, &c.
Days are usually divided into hours, hours into minutes, and minutes into seconds. Seven days are a week; fifty-two weeks a year, and one hundred years a century. The week has been commonly regarded as a memorial of creation. All ancient nations reckoned time by periods of seven days; and the Jews were especially commanded to Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
The names of the days of the week which were adopted by our Saxon forefathers are still retained. Each day was named after some idol they worshipped.
In all civilized countries time is measured by instruments of various kinds. Among the ruder nations of earlier times shadows thrown from rocks or mountains indicated the progress of the day; these led to the formation of sun-dials, with figures marked upon them to indicate hours; but as the sun-dial was of use during the sunshine only, it was superseded by water-clocks, which measured the passing of time by the escape of a certain quantity of water through a small aperture. Sand-glasses were used in a similar way. These imperfect inventions were superseded by clocks and watches, with wheels moved by weights or springs, and with hands to point to the hours and minutes marked on a dial, as time advanced.
THE DAY NOT DEPENDENT ON THE SUN. REGULARITY OF EARTH'S ROTATION.
the day This section of time, which we subdivide into 24 parts or hours, does not depend upon the sun or arise from it; as it is only an entire rotation of the earth, it would occur as well without a solar orb as with one. The first rotation of the earth round its own axis made the first day, and subsequent revolutions constitute the days which have succeeded it to the present time. Our planet might cease to turn round in this diurnal continuity, and might yet circle round the sun yearly.
regularity of the earths rotation Nor is it mere revolution which makes our day. It must move with constant and undeviating exactness at the rate of 1 ,000 miles an hour, or above 16 miles every minute, a stupendous celerity for a massy globe, nearly 8,000 miles in diameter. A greater velocity would make our day 80 much the shorter, a slower would as much prolong it; and this revolving force has been continued, and has acted for nearly 6,000 years, with a precision which has never varied. - Abridged from Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the World.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 118.
Natural divisions those divisions which are marked by the motions of certain objects in nature as recurring in successive order. The circuit of the earth round the sun, and the revolutions of the moon round the earth, mark several natural divisions of time.
Eras from aera (Lat.), an indefinite series of years, beginning from some known commencing time.
Day days in astronomy are sidereal, real solar, and mean solar. The last is the average of all the real solar days, and corresponds with our civil day. See 117.
Month i.e. the period that mooneth, so designated from the moon.
Year the time from one vernal equinox to another is a tropical or natural year, because it keeps the same seasons to the same months. As the tropical year is almost 365 and a quarter days if the civil year be made 365 days, it must be 366 every fourth year, to keep nearly to the course of the sun; hence the common year consists of seven months of 31 days each, four months of 30 days, and one of 28 days, making 365 days. The year of 366 days, called leap year, is formed by adding one day to the month of 28 days; thus, one year in four, February has 29 days.
Hour the 24th part of a day. The Romans divided the period from sunrise to sunset into twelve equal parts called hours, as the Jews and Turks do at present; hence their hours on no two successive days are precisely equal in length, but are longest in the middle of summer and shortest in mid-winter. The Chinese day is only twelve hours. The Bohemians and Poles count from one to twenty-four.
Periods from peri, round, and hodos (Gr.), way or path, and thus equivalent to circumference; a circle, orbit, or point of time when the revolution ends or terminates a course of years.
Week this division has been attributed to the Eyptians; but it is more probable that its origin dates at the completion or the work of creation.
calendar months from kalendae, calends, the first day. of every month. The calendar month, being a civil and arbitrary division of time, varies in different countries. The Romans had a practice of announcing by their pontifex the new month (as the Jews also bad); hence the term kalendae from caleo, to call, to cry aloud, to announce.
Fifty-two weeks the Jewish year was lunar, so was that or the Greeks and Romans. Julius Caesar reformed the calendar and adopted the solar year of 52 weeks of 7 days each.
sun-dials before clocks were known, and long since their introduction, the science of dialling was of great importance. The hour-lines of a dial are those on which the shadow falls at different hours, and are the intersection of the hour-circles with the plane of the dial. The earliest notice of a sundial occurs in the history of Ahaz.
Superseded from super, above, and aedeo (Lit.), to sit, to sit over, to set aside, to make void by a superior power.
Water-clocks - called by the Greeks klepsudrae, from klepto (Gr.), to hide, and hudor, water; they worked on the principle of sand-glasses. Ctesibus, of Alexandria, invented a water-clock, B.C. 145.
Aperture from aperio, apertum (Lat.), to open; an opening, a passage, hole.
Clock so called because it clicks; the first of which we have any authentic record was set up at St. Albans, in 1320, by Abbot Wallinfort.
Watch a machine by which to watch or observe the time.
QUESTIONS 118.
Are all divisions of time natural?
What other divisions also exist?
Are these also unchangeable?
How are the natural divisions caused?
What causes a natural day?
What a natural mouth? What a year?
Enumerate some of the artificial divisions of time?
How are days usually divided? hours? - minutes?
What period extends over 52 weeks?
What is a hundred years called?
Of what is the week a memorial?
Was the seven-day division of time observed by ancient nations?
From whom have our names of the days been derived?
Is not time measured artificially?
What inventions have arisen from the desire to mark the course of time?
How is the passing of time indicated by clocks and watches?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Into what parts is a day subdivided?
To what extent does the sun interfere to afford us this division of thus termed a day?
Show how this is the case.
What constituted the first day?
What have constituted days since?
How might there be years as now, yet without days?
How far does the length of our days and years depend, then, on the solar luminary?
With what uniform rate of rapidity due to rotation does the equatorial part of the earth move each hour?
What effect upon the day would follow the lessening of this rate?
How long has this rotating force acted without increase or diminution?
SECTION XV. DIVISIONS OF TIME.
Lesson 119. Months and Seasons.
The year consists of 365 days, which are divided into 12 months. It is also divided into four seasons; Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.
SPRING comprises February, the dampest month; March, the windiest; and April, the most variable. The beginning of March is often rough and windy, but towards its end the weather becomes mild, bright, and showery. The increasing heat of the earth, and the genial showers of April, are favourable to vegetation. About the time of the vernal equinox the winds blow which are called the equinoctial gales.
SUMMER comprises May, the most cheering month; June, the most flowery; and July, the hottest. During the month of May nearly all the forest-trees come into leaf, and many also blossom. Grass thickens, and bees swarm; the may-fly and the cockchafer are busy in the insect world. In June the days lengthen till the summer solstice. Sheep-shearing and haymaking begin, the rose blossoms, the wheat shoots into ear, and the strawberry ripens. July is the chief month for the smaller fruits, and for the finer flowers and garden vegetables.
AUTUMN comprises August, the richest month; September, the healthiest; and October, the dryest. Harvest commences in the middle of August. In September harvest operations are continued, the plums, peaches, and apricots ripen; the apple crop is gathered, and cider-making commences. The equinoctial gales are again felt at the autumnal equinox. In October the late harvest work is finished; and potatoes and the late fruits are stored.
The WINTER months are November, the foggiest month; December, the gloomiest; and January, the coldest. The leaves fall from the trees in November. Woodcocks and fieldfares arrive; wood-cutting and the transplanting of trees commence. Sheep are folded, and cattle foddered in their houses. In December snow often whitens the earth, and the trees are covered with hoar-frost. Evergreens, holly-berries, and mistletoe, please the eye; the days shorten till the winter solstice. Vegetation ceases during frosts, plants scarcely show themselves, and many animals become torpid.
THE YEAR AND THE CALENDAR.
Year We are told by Herodotus that the Egyptians claimed the honour of discovering by their astronomical observations that the year consisted of 365 days, and the priests informed him that they were the first who divided it into twelve equal parts of 30 days each, and that they added five days more at the end of the year. The actual length of the year is nearly 365 and a quarter days, so that if a year of 365 days were used, in four years the year would commence a day too soon. The method which we employ consists in counting an additional day at the end of February every fourth year, excepting when the years complete centuries from the birth of Christ. When such is the case only each fourth century is a leap year. Thus the year 1900 will be a common year of 365 days, whereas the year 2000 A.D., being divisible by 400, will be a leap year. In the course of three or four thousand years, the small fragment of time by which this reckoning is in excess of absolute accuracy, will have amounted to a day, for which provision can then be made. The civil year is a number of months appointed by law to be considered the space of a year.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 119.
Spring from spryngan (A.S.), to rise up, shoot forth; the springing or growing season.
February from februo (Lat.), to purify or cleanse by sacrifice, this being the month in which the people were so purified; called February fill-dyke, from its wetness.
March from Mars, the God of war; the first month of the Roman year.
April from aperio, to open; as budding flowers do in this month.
Summer sumer (A.S.), ease, rest.
May of uncertain derivation, perhaps from Maia, the mother of Mercury.
June from Juno, the principal goddess in the mythology of the Romans; the wife of Jupiter.
July originally called by the Romans Quintilis (fifth), but changed by Marc Antony to Julius, in honour of Julius Caesar.
Autumn from aoton (Gr), perfection, the best, choicest, prime, or flower of anything, is derived autumn, being the season of the year in which the fruits of the earth come to perfection.
August from Augustus Caesar.
September from septem, seven; the seventh month from March, but the ninth of our year.
equinoctial gales caused by the tradewinds, which are easterly winds within the tropics, and which give rise to the west or south-west winds at the periods of the equinoxes in the two temperate zones. The equinoctial gales are by no means the highest. Those of December and January are generally the highest. In England easterly winds prevail during spring, and westerly are the most common in summer and autumn.
October from octo, eight; the eighth month of the ancient Roman year.
Winter - the windy season.
November - from novem, nine; the ninth of the Roman months.
December - from decem, ten; the tenth mouth of the old Roman calendar, the twelfth and last of ours.
January from janua, a gate; so called because it is the gate or opening
Of the year; according to some, however, it is derived from Janus, a Roman divinity represented as looking two Ways, at the past and future, as we all should do at the end of one year and the beginning of a new one.
increasing heat when the temperature of the earth attains 40 degrees of the thermometer vegetation proceeds.
cider-making October was called wyn-at month, wine month, by the Anglo-Saxons; probably cider or apple wine.
QUESTIONS 119.
How many are the days of a year?
How many are its months?
What are the four seasons?
Give the supposed or probable derivation of the name of each of the months.
Which are the spring months?
What are the characteristics of each of them?
What natural phenomena occur in April that are favourable to vegetation?
What peculiar winds blow at this season?
Give me some information respecting these gales.
What months are included in summer?
What are their characteristics?
What farming operations then take place?
Characterize the three months of autumn.
When does harvest time commence?
What productions are perfected in September?
Characterize the three winter months.
What are the occupations and natural appearances of winter?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What honour did the ancient Egyptians claim for their observations as to the length of the year?
Who informs us of this?
What did the Egyptian priests tell him?
How far was their calculation short of accuracy?
By the Egyptian plan of reckoning how soon would it have been found that a day was lost?
How do we guard against the error into which they fell?
What exception do we make to this rule?
How long will this system of reckoning years carry us without the necessity of any further changes in the calendar?
What is meant by a civil year?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 120. Years and Centuries.
A year is the measure of one revolution of the earth round the sun; this revolution takes place in 365 days, 6 hours. A century is a period of 100 years. We count our lives by years, but we reckon the worlds history by centuries.
Nearly sixty centuries, or 6,000 years, have elapsed since man was first placed on the earth. Forty centuries, or 4,000 years, elapsed between the creation of Adam and the birth of our Saviour; and upwards of eighteen centuries and a half have elapsed from the birth of Christ to the present time.
Among men great changes take place in a century. About half a century before the coming of Christ, Julius Caesar invaded Britain. Our forefathers, the ancient Britons, were then rude and uncivilized, living in huts, and knowing but few of the arts. About five centuries later, the Saxons settled in England, and founded several kingdoms; and three centuries and a half later still, Egbert made England a monarchy.
In the eleventh century William the Norman conquered England; at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the barons forced king John to sign Magna Charta, which gives to Englishmen many of their privileges; in the fifteenth century the art of printing was invented; and soon after its invention, it was introduced into England by Caxton; in the sixteenth century, the first voyage was made round the world, and the reformation took place in the English church. In the seventeenth century, London was desolated by a plague one year, and nearly destroyed by fire the next; in the eighteenth century England acknowledged the independence of the United States.
During most of the present century peace and prosperity have been enjoyed by our country. Four monarchs have occupied the throne, namely, George Ill., who died in 1820, after reigning fifty-nine years; George IV., who died in 1830, after reigning ten years; William IV., who died in 1837, after reigning seven years; and our present beloved sovereign, Queen Victoria, whom we hope God will long spare to reign over us.
PROVISIONS OF MAGNA CHARTA.
magna charta This great charter of the liberties of Englishmen is frequently referred to by writers and public speakers, so that many are aware of its existence and enjoy its privileges, as they enjoy the air they breathe, who know but little of its express provisions. It formally asserts the right of every man to enjoy personal liberty and security, and to own property. By signing it the king engaged to maintain the Church as the teacher of religious truth, and confirmed the privileges of the clergy; he undertook to relieve the nobles of oppressive obligations as vassals of the Crown, binding them, in their turn, to deal similarly with the people under vassalage to them to respect the guaranteed liberties of cities and boroughs to protect foreigners who might visit England for purposes of trade to imprison no man except by the legal judgment of his equals to establish and sustain adequate courts of Law, and never to sell, delay, or deny justice to any one seeking it. Subsequent enactments only fill in the details of freedom which this great charter marked out; and when serfdom was abolished, its provisions were made applicable to all the people.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 120.
Century from centum, a hundred.
60 centuries 6,0OO years.
Elapsed from lapsus, a gliding or passing by.
Man first placed his first residence was the garden of Eden.
Julius Caesar an illustrious Roman. He had successively filled the offices of military tribune, consul, and dictator. He was assassinated March 15th, B.C. 44.
invaded Britain first in the year B.C. 55, and again in the following year, B.C. 54.
ancient Britons - a branch of that widespread people called Celts. They had at a very early period crossed over from Gaul.
five centuries later in the year A.D. 449, Hengist and Horsa, two Saxon pirates, were invited by the Britons to assist them against the Scots.
the Saxons they sprung originally from a tribe inhabiting Jutland in Denmark; after they had conquered the Picts and Scots, they turned their swords against their employers, the Britons, and soon succeeded in driving them into the interior of the country.
several kingdoms called the Saxon Heptarcby. The kingdoms were1, Kent, founded about AD. 460; 2, Sussex founded A.D.491; 3, Wessex, founded A.D. 519; 4, Essex, founded A.D. 527; 5, Northunbria, founded A.D. 547; 6, East Anglia, founded A.D, 571; and 7, Mercia, founded A.D. 585.
Egbert - he became king of Wessex in A.D. 8; at which time the heptarchy was reduced to a triple sovereignty, viz., Northumberland, Mercia, and Wessex. About the year 827 Egbert obtained the supremacy.
11th century - the battle of Hastings, which was gained by William, was fought on the 16th of October, 1066.
William the Norman he claimed the throne of England as next heir to Edward the
Confessor, who died January 5th, 1066.
13th Century - on Trinity Monday, June 15, 1215.
Magna Charta - in the middle ages every written document was denominated chartula, charta, or carta, hence our word charter, or written instrument of rights, &c. The great charter was extorted by the barons from John on the plain of Runnymede near Windsor.
15th Century - about the year 1438 John Gutenberg first printed with
Moveable types.
Caxton - William Caxton was a London mercer. In 1477 he published at Westminster The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers.
16th century in the years 1520 end 1521, by Magellan, a Spanish navigator In the service of Portugal.
Reformatlon from reformo, to frame again, to renew; which partly consisted in establishing the churches of England, Scotland and other countries upon a footing quite independent of papal authority.
Plague from plaga, a stroke; in the year 1665, when at least 130,000 persons died. The common annual mortality of London at that period was about 14,000.
Fire in the year 1666. It broke out at a bakers in Pudding-lane, Fish-street-hill, September 2nd. The ruins covered 430 acres, more than half the city. St. Pauls cathedral, 80 parish churches many public buildings, and more than 13,000 houses were destroyed. Only six persons lost their lives.
Peace though England has been engaged in the interval in many short wars.
Queen Victoria daughter of the Duke of Kent, son of George III., and niece to William IV. It is gratifying to all that it is both their duty and their interest to say, "Long live the Queen."
QUESTIONS 120.
What natural phenomenon measures the year?
What do you mean by a revolution?
What is the exact period in which this revolution takes place?
How long is it since man was first created?
What period elapsed between the creation of man and the birth of Christ?
When does the first accurate account of Britain begin?
Who was Julius Caesar?
In what condition did the Romans find the ancient Britons?
What people next invaded Britain?
Where did they come from?
When did England first present the appearance of a single monarchy?
Mention some of the great events of English history succeeding the Norman conquest.
Tell me the names of the sovereigns who have reigned over Great Britain during the nineteenth century.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is the great charter of our liberties called?
By whom is it frequently mentioned?
What right does this charter assert?
In what way was it favourable to the church and the clergy?
How did it relieve the nobility from the encroachments of the crown?
What duties did it require from them in return?
What advantage did cities and boroughs obtain?
How was the trade with foreigners to be encouraged?
What were the provisions of the charter with reference to personal liberty?
In what manner was justice to be secured to every man?
What general principles were thus marked out?
What class was at that time shut out from the privileges confirmed by the charter?
When were its provisions made applicable to all classes?
SECTION XVI. OF CLIMATES.
Lesson 121. The Cardinal Points.
The Cardinal Points are four East, West, North, and South. They are used to express the direction in which one place stands with reference to another. Thus London is south of York, and York is north of London; Ireland is west of England, and England is east of Ireland, &c.
To find the cardinal points about us we may stand at midday with our face toward the sun; we shall then have the east on our left hand, the west on our right hand, the south before us, and the north at our backs. Or we may stand on a starlight night opposite to the north-pole-star; and then the west is to the left, the east to the right, the north before us, and the south behind us.
In a map of the earth, or of any portion of it, we have the north at the top, the west on the left hand, the east on the right hand, and the south at the bottom. Points between these are called north-east, north-west, south-east, south-west, &c.
Without a knowledge of these points it would be difficult to make the relative situation of places on the earth or on a map understood. Knowing them we can easily explain the situation of an unknown place by speaking of it as to the east, west, north, or south of one that is known; as the German Ocean is on the east of the British Isles; France is south of England; Italy and Greece are in the south of Europe. In England when we speak of the western continent we mean America; when we speak of the eastern continent we mean Asia. A knowledge of the cardinal points is very necessary to seamen; ships are provided with a magnetic needle enclosed in a box, with all the points marked on it. This instrument is called the mariners compass; the needle always pointing northward informs them where the other points are, and in what direction they ought to steer their vessels to reach the place of their destination. A pocket compass is useful to all travellers in deserts, forests, or unknown countries for a similar purpose.
THE LOADSTONE THE MARINERS COMPASS.
the mariners compass The loadstone has the remarkable property of a directive force; it can also communicate this property to iron which is not magnetic, and thus magnetic needles can be made to direct the mariner, or the wanderer on the mountain or in the desert. The mariners compass consists of the box, the card, on which 32 points are generally shown, and the needle. The intervals between the points are divided into halves and quarters, and the whole circumference into 360 parts at degrees. The distance between any two of the points is equal to 11 and a quarter degrees, therefore (32 x l1 and a quarter = 360), and thus the card represents the horizon. The needle is a small bar of steel which, when suspended freely, points in the direction of the ideal axis of the earth the north and south poles. In order that the compass may act accurately it should be placed where it cannot be affected by iron; the iron used in the construction of vessels is found to disturb the action of the needle, and accidents have arisen from this cause.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 121.
cardinal points from cardo, cardinis, a hinge, so called because all the other points hinge thereon; the chief or principal points of direction; cardinal comes from cardo, a hinge, and is here applied because as the direction of the motion of a door depends on the hinge, so the direction of the geographer or traveller is regulated by these four great points. The cardinal points are the four intersections of the horizon, with the meridian and the prime vertical circle; those of the meridian north and south, those of the prime vertical east and west.
East the direction in which the sun rises. Those countries which lie towards the sun-rising are called eastern countries. The festival of the rising or resurrection of the Sun of Righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ, is called Easter. The true eastern point is that at which the sun rises at the equinoxes.
West the western point is directly opposite the eastern, viz., where the sun sets at the equinoxes.
North that point in the heavens which is directly opposite to the sun in the meridian. The north pole is 90 degrees distant from the equator.
South that part of the heavens where the sun is seen at mid-day.
Maps, &c. plans of the form and situation of the various countries, so as to represent their different parts in due proportion with each other. Terrestrial maps are of two kinds geographic, or land maps, and hydrographic, or sea maps, called charts.
Points they number 32 in all, and may be thus read,N0RTH, north by east, north-north-east, north-east, northeast-by-east, east-north-east, east by north, EAST, and so on, to SOUTH, to WEST, and to north again.
relative situation that is, the situation or position of one country in relation to another; one person is relatively placed to another according as he is on his right hand or left hand, before or behind him.
German Ocean a division of the Atlantic Ocean, from which the British Isles separate it. The eastern coast of England forms its western border; the western shores of Norway and Denmark its eastern limits; the coasts of France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany, bound it on the South; and it unites with the Polar sea between Bergen and the Shetland Isles on the north. Its uniformity is broken only by one rock, namely, Heligoland.
seamenthey adopt two modes of ascertaining the situation of a ship at sea, as to its latitude and longitude; the one depending upon the course and distance sailed, is called the "dead reckoning;" the other is founded upon astronomical observations.
Magnetic - from magnes (GR.), a dweller In Magnesia, in Thessaly, where the kind of stone possessing the property of attracting Iron was abundant.
Magnetic needle the discovery of the polarity or inclinatlon of a magnetized bar of metal to the north pole, was made at a comparatively early period. The application of this discovery to nautical purposes, though commonly ascribed to one Gioga, of Amalfi, about the year 1315, must have had an earlier origin.
QUESTIONS 121.
Why are the cardinal points so called?
How does London stand with reference to York?
How is Ireland situated as regards England?
How may we find the cardinal points by day?
How during night?
How are they shown on a map of the earth?
In what respect is the knowledge of these points necessary?
Illustrate your meaning with reference to the German Ocean, France, England, &c.
What do we mean by the western continent?
Which is the eastern continent?
To what class of men is a knowledge of the cardinal points important?
What instrument is used by seamen?
How does it guide the mariner?
Under what circumstances is it useful as a guide on land?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What property has the loadstone?
How does this property avail us with re-regard to non-magnetic needles?
To whom do magnetic needles prove of value?
Of what three parts does the mariners compass consist?
Bow many points are usually shown on the card?
Into what portions is the interval between any two of these points divided?
How many degrees are in the whole circumference?
Calculate the difference between two of the points shown on the card.
What does the card represent?
What phenomenon does the needle exhibit when freely suspended?
What cause of inaccuracy must be guarded against in the use of the compass on shipboard?
What mischief has arisen to vessels owing to insufficient provision against this source of error?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 122. The Equator and the Zones.
The Equator is at an equal distance from the north and south poles, and divides the earth into two equal parts, called the northern and southern hemispheres. The distance of a place from the equator is called its latitude. Places in the northern hemisphere are said to be in north latitude, those in the southern. hemisphere in south latitude. Those circles of a map or globe which are parallel to the equator are parallels of latitude. The lines which run from north to south are called degrees of longitude. The longitude of a place is reckoned east or west from a certain point called the first meridian. The line of the first meridian on English maps and globes passes through Greenwich, near London. Other meridians are also adopted.
Zones are belts, or portions of the earth, encircling it, which receive distinctive names to indicate their temperature. There are five zones one Torrid, two Temperate, and two Frigid.
The Torrid Zone, which lies 23 degrees on each side of the Equator, includes all that part of the earths surface on which the sun is vertical, or over head at some time of the year. This zone has only two seasons, the wet, when rain is copious; and the dry, when rain is unknown.
The Frigid Zones are north and south. They extend 23and a half degrees from each of the poles; the north frigid zone being included in the Arctic Circle, and the south frigid zone in the Antarctic Circle. These countries never see the sun during their winter, and during their summer the sun never sets.
Between the torrid and the frigid zones lie the two Temperate Zones, the countries in which are neither excessively hot nor excessively cold, except in those parts which border on the tropics or the polar circles. The temperate zones have four seasons spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Recent writers reckon eight zones, which are thus named; 1, the Equatorial zone; 2, the Tropical; 3, the Sub-tropical; 4, the Warm temperate; 5, the Cold temperate; 6, the Subarctic; 7, the Arctic; and 8, the Polar zones.
HUMBOLDT'S ZONES.
eight zones These eight zones are to be considered as vegetable regions, especially marking the distribution of plants. No mere geographical or astronomical divisions are sufficient to determine the limits of equal average temperature; the thermometer can be the only guide. It is thus that Humboldt projected a system of isothermal lines i.e., lines of equal mean average temperature, giving a general idea of the distribution of heat on the globe. He proposes the following six divisions:
LESSON 122.
Equator a great circle intersecting the horizon at the east and west points; being at right angles to the axis of the earth, it is at all parts equally distant from the poles.
Latitude from latitudo, breadth, extent; this can never exceed 90 degrees, which is the distance of the north and south pole from the equator. The latitude of a place is its distance north or south from the equator.
Map from mappa (Lat.), a table cloth; a tablet, picture, or delineation of the world, or of any part of it, so called from its likeness to a table cloth.
Parallels from parallelos (Gr.), side by side; deduced from para, by, and allelon, each other; even or corresponding lines of space. Parallel lines neither converge nor diverge, but retain their relation as to distance with each other.
degrees of longitude a degree of longitude is the 360th part of the great equatorial circle, or of any circle parallel to it. As the earths motion is eastward, the sun appears to move westward at the rate of 15 degrees each hour; therefore they who are 15 degrees eastward of us have their noon (and all other hours of the day) an hour sooner than we have; each part of the globe must therefore have its own time of day. The longitude of a place is its distance east or west from the first meridian.
first meridian simply the starting point adopted by different countries for the measurement of space by time.
Greenwich the point from which English geographers reckon the longitude. When it is 12 oclock at that place it is 1 oclock 15 degrees east of it, and 11 oclock 15 degrees west; and so on all round the equatorial line, which on maps is intersected by 24 lines meeting at the poles; the space between any two of which lines represents 1 hour or 15 degrees. The lines of longitude are also called hour-circles.
other meridians different nations use different first meridians, and thus cause confusion. The French draw the first meridian through Paris, the Spaniards through Madrid, the Anglo-Americans through Washington. Some nations reckon from the island of Ferro, one of the Canary Islands. English mariners regulate their chronometers by Greenwich time; French by Paris time, &c.
zone from zone (Gr.) a girdle or belt; in geography it means any division of the sphere between two parallels of latitude.
eight zones that is eight vegetable regions; these will probably supersede the old division into torrid, temperate, and frigid, as they seem to meet every necessity.
Equatorial on both sides of the equator to about 15 degrees latitude.
Tropical from latitude 18 degrees to the tropics.
sub-tropical - from the tropics to latitude 34 degrees.
warm temperate from latitude 34 to 45.
cold temperate from 45 to 58.
sub-arctic from latitude 58 to the polar circle.
Arctic from arkios (Gr.), a bear, such being the distinguishing constellation of the Arctic, or the north, it extends from the polar circle to latitude 72.
polar zone beyond latitude 72.
QUESTIONS 122.
What distance is the equator from the pole.?
What does the equator divide?
What is the meaning of latitude?
Where do places in north latitude lie?
And where are those in south latitude?
What are the lines parallel to the equator called?
What are the lines from north to south called?
What is the latitude of a place?
Is the meridian a fixed point common to all countries?
Where does the line of our first meridian pass?
What are zones?
How many are there?
What parts of the earth are included in the torrid zone?
Where are the frigid zones?
What circles are included in them?
What zones lie between the frigid zones and the torrid zone?
How are they characterized?
How many zones have recent writers reckoned?
What are they called?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What do these eight zones chiefly mark?
What determines the limits of equal average temperature?
What is meant by isothermal lines?
Who projected the system of isothermal lines?
Mention the limits of the hot zone.
Between what two zones is the mild zone placed?
State the mean annual temperature of the cold zones.
What zones occupy and surround the poles?
Which zone lies between 41 degrees and 32 degrees?
What is the mean temperature of the whole earth?
What is an isothermal zone?
SECTION XVI. OF CLIMATES.
If a map of the world or a globe were to be coloured so as to represent the different zones, the Torrid Zone would look like a broad belt across the map, or round the middle of the globe, covering a full third of the entire surface. The upper part would reach as far north as the tropic of cancer, and the lower, as far south as the tropic of capricorn. Its breadth is 47 degrees.
The larger part of the torrid zone is water. But the principal part of the land is nearly the whole of Africa, Hindostan, Burmah, and the northern part of Australia, in the eastern hemisphere; and rather more than half of South America, the West India Islands, and a part of North America in the western hemisphere.
Owing to the diversified character of the land in the torrid zone, which comprises extended plains, and lofty mountains, almost every species of vegetable production finds an appropriate soil and atmosphere. Some of the loftiest mountains in the world are situated within this zone, whose sides become cool in proportion to their height above the level of the sea, while their summits are covered with perpetual snow. Birds, beasts, and plants of every description, may therefore thrive there, although many of the native animals are large and fierce, and the plants of the plains and valleys luxuriant and gigantic.
Among the large animals of the torrid zone are the elephant, the camel, the hippopotamus, the buffalo, and the horse; the smaller animals also abound; many ferocious beasts of prey are found there, as the lion, the tiger, the leopard, and others. Birds of great variety and beauty are abundant, both large and small; alligators, serpents, and other reptiles are numerous; while insects of the most gorgeous hues are found there: which are unknown in colder latitudes.
The luxuriant growth of the plains and valleys renders much cultivation needless, and as labour is oppressive through the intense heat, the chief wants of the people are supplied almost spontaneously by a bountiful Providence.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TORRID ZONE.
torrid zoneThe intense heat, the large expanse of ocean, the luxuriance of vegetation, the extraordinary height of mountains, the abundant rains, the extent and dreariness of deserts, the size, beauty, and ferocity of animals, and the frequent occurrence of volcanic phenomena, are the chief cbaracteristics of the torrid zone. its breadth is 3,261 English, or 2,580 geographical miles. The people of this zone always see the sun right above them, hence he pours down upon them his direct rays. The scorching heat would, therefore, be intolerable were it not moderated by the long nights (12 hours), the heavy dews, the cool breezes from the ocean, the mountains, and the periodical rains, which are abundant In this zone are the Sahara and the deserts of Nubia, Lybia, and Arabia; they are chiefly tracts of sand or bare rock, in which frequent storms of wind occur, filling the air with clouds of sand, and producing temporary darkness. Amongst the volcanoes may be mentioned the Andes, Jorullo in Mexico, and many islands of the East Indian Archipelago.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 123.
Torrid from torreo (Lat.), to parch, burn; the heat in this zone being of burning quality.
Tropic of Cancer cancer means crab, a zodiacal constellation of the northern hemisphere, thus indicated [symbol]. This animal was considered emblematical of the sun's course, which having attained the tropic, continues no longer to ascend, but takes a horizontal direction. The sun enters Cancer about the 21st of June. See Zodiac, Lesson 113.
Tropic of Capricorn from caper, capri, a goat, and cornu, a horn, i.e., a goats horn; the sea-goat, a zodiacal constellation of the southern hemisphere, shown thus [symbol], from its supposed resemblance to that imaginary animal. The sun enters Capricorn about the 21st of December. See Zodiac, Lesson 113.
Water the quantity of water composing the ocean remains always the same, evaporation and condensation being equal in their action.
hemisphere eastern, western, northern, southern (see Lesson 112, and notes). Two other hemispheres may here be mentioned; viz., the terrestrial, with England occupying nearly its centre; exhibiting all the great masses of land of the four great continents; and the centre also of the more civilized and commercial portions of the earth and the oceanic hemisphere, with our antipodes, New Zealand, nearly in its centre, containing the great mass of the waters of the earth. If a person were elevated above Falmouth, which is nearly the central point in the land hemisphere, he would see the greatest possible expanse of land; while were he elevated to the same height above New Zealand, he would see the greatest possible extent of ocean.
lofty mountains as the Andes of America, the Mountains of the Moon in Africa, and the Western Ghauts in India. Mountains placed between the tropics, the summits of which ascend above the snow-line, represent the vegetable zones of the whole earth, rising one above another, perpendicularly, in the same order as is observed from the equator to the poles.
plants of the plains, &c. in the zones of the tropical mountains we have 1, the region of palms and bananas; 2, tree ferns and figs; 3, myrtles and
laurels; 4, evergreen trees: 5, European trees; 6, pines; 7, rhododendrons;
8, alpine plants.
Spontaneously from spons, spontis, of free-will; meaning without human labour; such trees as the bread-fruit, the cocoa-nut palm, the date palm, and many others, require no cultivation in their native regions. Ten bread-fruit trees will supply a family a whole year, besides which the wood and other parts of the tree have important uses.
QUESTIONS 123.
Which preponderates more in the torrid zone, land or water?
What lands are found within it first in the eastern, next in the western hemisphere?
What are the main characters of its vegetation?
Do plants of other zones prosper in the torrid zone?
Row do you account for this?
What effect have the lofty mountains of this zone upon the atmosphere in their locality?
Do fierce animals inhabit this zone?
Enumerate some of the larger land animals.
Name some of the larger birds.
Is it remarkable for its insects?
Is labour difficult in this zone?
From what cause?
What natural provision meets this physical inability?
What is shown in this beautiful adaptation of natural abundance?
Find the grateful expression of the psalmist on contemplating the abundance of the earth. Psalm civ. 24.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is observed as to the vegetation of the torrid zone?
What peculiarities do the animals exhibit?
What is noticeable of the rains that fall in it?
How are the deserts of the region characterized?
Mention other circumstances distinctive of this zone.
What is the breadth of the torrid zone?
Why do the people feel the force of the suns rays?
How is the heat moderated?
Name some of the principal deserts.
Whet is a desert?
What phenomenon Is frequent in the desert?
Where are volcanic eruptions numerous?
Name a celebrated volcano in Mexico.
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
The Frigid Zones occupy the space marked out in a map or globe from the Poles to the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. One of them is called the north frigid zone, and the other the south frigid zone. Their breadth is 23 degrees each.
The countries of the North Frigid Zone are the northern parts of Siberia, Lapland, Nova Zembla, parts of Greenland, and of the Hudsons Bay Territory, and the Russian possessions in North America. In the South Frigid Zone, Victoria Land, and two small islands, are the only countries known.
In these regions vegetation is small in extent, though the native plants are vigorous and healthy. Grain will not grow, except on the borders of the temperate regions; a few grasses are found a little northward, and when they cease entirely the mosses and lichens abound, but near the poles there is no vegetation.
In the frigid zones man does not want the refreshing shades, the cooling fruits, and the exuberant foliage of the hotter regions. The cold is so great that he could not endure the successive hours of labour which the cultivator of the soil has to bestow on the earth in the temperate regions. The mosses and lichens afford much nutriment, while the sea teems with inexhaustible profusion; fishes more numerous and larger than land animals in the temperate and tropical regions, yield supplies of food, while the active occupations of hunting the seal and the walrus employ the polar inhabitants and their dogs.
The long absence of the sun would cause perpetual darkness for months, were it not that the twilight is much longer and brighter in countries near the poles than it is with us; and the aurora is also frequent, which affords a mild radiance that is reflected by the snow-covered landscape.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FRIGID ZONE.
frigid zones Intense cold, dreary nights (of from one to six months), icy cliffs, with gigantic icicles hanging from their projecting points; a snow-covered surface, the earth frozen as solid as the stony rock for several feet; on the arctic ocean floating fields of ice, from twenty to thirty and even one hundred miles long, and icebergs like tall cliffs, glittering and almost transparent, is the wintry aspect of the two frigid zones; in summer that is, for about six weeks flowers of vivid colours adorn the more southern latitudes. The space contained within them measures 11,431 miles. The larger animals of the arctic regions are the whales, seals, and walruses of the polar seas, large flocks of waterfowl, and the small fur-covered animals of the arctic continent. Vegetation ceases at the line of perpetual frost, then the mosses, lichens, and saxifrages abound from the limits of ice to the region of trees. The lowest temperatures observed by arctic voyagers range from 40 degrees to 60 degrees below zero of Fahrenheit, which is 70 degrees to 90 degrees below the temperature of melting ice.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 124.
Frigid zone from frigidus, cold; notwithstanding the extreme cold in these divisions of the earth, there are reasons for believing their former inhabitants enjoyed a milder climate; for the remains of animals and vegetables are found there which could only have lived in such milder climate.
Greenland the most extensive of the arctic lands; it is a table-land, bounded by mountains rising from the sea in precipices; its coating of ice is so continuous and thick that its surface is one enormous glacier.
Vegetation - there are no trees; even bushes are found only in the warmer parts; there are no annuals, for the summer is too short to allow the whole life of a plant to be compressed within it. Perennial herbs and small shrubs are only displayed. The flowers are scentless, their colours unmixed; snow-white, sky-blue, rose-colour, and pure yellow, are the chief colours of the flowering plants.
Grain the soil is too moist and cold, and also too poor, for its growth.
mosses and lichens even this poor substitute for the richer productions of more favoured climates, is thankfully applied as food for both man and beast.
the sea teems, &c. not only with the larger sea animals, but with a profuse supply of various kinds of fish and mollusks.
Hunting the wild animals which afford both sport and necessary employment are bears, wolves, lynxes, foxes, hares, martens, &c., besides the seals, walruses, porpoises, whales, and narwhals.
Dogs the dogs of these regions are trained to hunt, to bear burdens, and to draw sledges.
the sun at the north pole on the 21st of March we should see a portion of the suns disk like a crescent appearing in the horizon, after a long night of six months. It would move quite round the horizon every 24 hours, gradually rising higher till the whole body of the sun made its appearance. The sun would continue to rise higher till the 21st of June, after which his altitude would decline daily till the 23rd of September, when he would again appear in the horizon. He would then again disappear for six months. During this six months the south pole would enjoy an uninterrupted day.
Aurora during the absence of the sun the only light would be from the moon and stars, and the coruscations of the aurora.
reflectedthis reflection is called the "snow-blink," and there is consequently no absolute darkness.
QUESTI0NS 124.
What spaces do the frigid zones occupy on a map?
How are they distinguished from one another?
What is the character of the vegetation in these zones?
What parts are destitute of vegetable life?
How is this?
What parts of these zones admit of the growth of corn?
After the corn limit is passed, what sort of vegetation succeeds?
When all species of grass fail, what follow?
What shelter, peculiarly grateful in the torrid zone, is not needed in the frigid zone?
Is the extreme of cold as unfavourable to labour as the excessive heat of the torrid zone?
Whence is support obtained?
Name one species, of moss which is peculiarly nutritive.
Is there any food obtained from the sea?
What are the active occupations of the inhabitants of the polar countries?
How is the long absence of the sun compensated for?
Describe the apparent course of the sun from the 21st of March to the 23rd of September at the north pole.
What adds to the blessing of a long twilight?
By what means is the light of the aurora reflected?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Of what duration is the night in the frigid zone?
What peculiarity in the ground renders cultivation impossible?
Of what size are floating fields of ice sometimes met with?
What are single masses of floating ice termed?
How long does summer last?
What area is contained within the frigid zone?
Name some of the large animals existing there.
What renders the small land animals valuable?
Where does vegetation cease altogether?
What classes of plants are in immediate proximity to the range within which there is no vegetation?
What higher grade of vegetation next succeeds?
Name the lowest extreme of temperature observed by arctic voyagers.
SECTION XVI. OF CLIMATES.
Lesson 125. The Temperate Zones.
The North Temperate Zone lies between the tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle; the South Temperate Zone between the tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle. Each of them is forty degrees in breadth.
The chief countries of the North Temperate Zone are Tartary, China, Persia, Turkey, the north of Hindostan, and most of Siberia; all Europe, except Lapland, the north of Scandinavia, and Russia; Egypt, and the Barbary States, and most of North America.
The South Temperate Zone is to a great extent water; in it are the southern parts of Australia, Africa, and South America, and the islands of New Zealand and Tasmania.
The temperate zones occupy that portion of the globe which is the most favourable for the development of the powers and faculties of man; they are generally free from the extremes of heat and cold, yet those parts which border on the polar circles partake of the coldness of the frigid zones; and those parts near the northern and southern extremities of the tropics, partake of the heat of the torrid zone.
Plants and animals of the most useful kinds may be found in these zones. Their different regions abound in corn-plants, and in animals of the laborious and edible kinds. The horse, the cow, the sheep, the deer, the goat, the dog, and many others are either natives of the temperate zones, or live within them securely. Of birds, the nightingale, the blackbird, the thrush, and the finches, delight us with their notes; the swan graces our streams, and the domestic fowl, the duck, the pheasant, and the pigeon, supply our tables. Fishes are also found in great abundance; the cod, the whiting, the salmon, the flounder, the herring, the pilchard, the lobster, and many others, provide employment for the fisherman, and food for thousands.
The moderation of the heat, and the need of cultivating the soil, make the inhabitants of these zones more hardy, intelligent, and industrious than in either the torrid or the frigid zones.
In the colder parts of the temperate zones the winters are from three to five months in duration, while in the warmer parts they do not exceed two or three months.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONES.
temperate zones The north temperate zone consists chiefly of land, intersected, however, by the north Pacific and the north Atlantic oceans. The continents of the south temperate zone narrow to the peninsular form, and terminate in capes the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans then unite with the Indian Ocean, so that the south temperate zone consists chiefly of water. In climate and productions these zones must always be considered the most highly favoured parts of the globe, and in the northern zone these natural advantages have been improved and cultivated, while the southern presents us with some of the lowest stages of human existence.
The climates of the temperate zones differ much that of Funchal (Madeira) is 75 degrees at the highest, 62 degrees at the lowest; that of London is 66 degrees at the highest, and 41 degrees at the lowest; that of Paris 65 degrees at the highest, 36 degrees at the lowest; that of New York 83 degrees at the highest, 25 degrees at the lowest; and that of Pekin 84 degrees at the highest, and 24 degrees at the lowest. Funchal is insular and constant; London and Paris variable; New York and Pekin extreme.
EXPLANATIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS.
LESSON 125.
north temperate zone between the torrid zone and the north frigid zone.
Tartary the Tartars are a powerful people, consisting of many tribes and nations, celebrated for endurance of fatigue, their powers of conquest, their predatory and pastoral modes of life.
China the Chinese are an active, laborious, and commercial people.
Persia the Persians have some important manufactures, both textile and in metals, and much inland commerce.
Turkey the Turks have many manufactures, and considerable commerce; in some districts the pastoral mode of life prevails.
Hindostan the Hindoos are fast adopting European manners and habits, including most of the arts of industry followed in the most civilized countries.
Siberiathe country is sterile, the people active and intelligent.
Europe long acknowledged to be the most civilized and intelligent portion of the earth.
Scandinavia the Swedes and Norwegians inhabiting this vast peninsula have always been an enterprising and valiant people.
Russia the Russians are an agricultural and pastoral people, celebrated for commerce and military power.
Egypt one of the earliest seats of intelligence and civilization.
Barbary all that we know of the Moors, the Numidians, the Phoenician colonists, and the Carthaginians, proves that the earlier people of these states were powerful and intelligent
North America the aboriginals were a very superior race to most of the savage tribes. The present inhabitants of the United States and Canada have all the intelligence of the Europeans from whom they are descended.
south temperate zone between the torrid zone and the south frigid zone; It contains few extensive countries.
Australia &c. - all the portions of Australia, Africa, New Zealand, and Van Diemens Land are peopled by colonies from England and other parts of Europe.
Favourable &c. the foregoing notes are to show that all the countries of the temperate zones are peopled by active, intelligent, and enterprising nations.
Faculties they are neither stunted by excessive cold, nor enervated by the heat of the tropics.
more hardy the Anglo-Saxon race is found in all climates.
more intelligent - manifested by the progress of science, art, and literature in the various countries of the temperate zones.
QUESTIONS 125.
Where do the temperate zones lie?
In what manner are they favourable to the residence of man?
From what are they generally free?
Besides being favourable to the human faculties, what else are they remarkable for?
In what do they abound?
Name some of the useful animals found in these zones.
What birds are found in them?
Are the fishes abundant and varied?
What necessity compels the physical and mental training of the inhabitants of these regions?
What benefits are the result?
How long are the winters in the colder parts of these zones?
How long are they in the warmer parts?
State some particulars respecting the countries and their inhabitants mentioned in the Notes on this Lesson.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What masses of water prevent the continuity of land in the north temperate zone?
What shape does land tend to assume in the south temperate zone?
State the respective prevalence of land and water in the two temperate zones.
In what respects are the temperate zones more favoured than the other zones?
What renders the north temperate zone a more desirable residence than the south temperate?
Where are human beings found in a very low state of development?
What range has the thermometer at Funchal?
State the extremes of temperature at London, Paris, Pekin, and New York.
What facts do we thus learn?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 126. Inhabitants of the Zones.
The natives of the torrid zone are chiefly dark-coloured, and many of them are black. They live principally on vegetable food, which is the diet most suitable for a hot climate. Their habits are generally indolent, they have strong passions, are addicted to selfish indulgences, and make but little improvement in laborious arts. The spontaneous abundance of the earth almost supersedes the necessity of toil; some of the trees yielding fruit for more than half the year.
The inhabitants of the temperate zones have generally light complexions, they possess strength of body and mind, can endure hardships, and have much perseverance in conquering difficulties.
The variety of the seasons in the temperate zones requires constant attention to clothing and habitations, so as to secure health and comfort. The abundance of one season and dearth of another, demand forethought to store up provisions during harvest for the supply of winter.
The inhabitants of the frigid zones are few in number, and have dark complexions. They are low in stature, and have but little intelligence. The great cold, and many privations they endure, depress them in body and mind; want of free intercourse with other countries also deprives them of much enjoyment, yet they have active occupations and many comforts.
The cultivation of grain is carried on near the borders of the temperate regions, though in the greater part of the frigid zone there is only a stunted vegetation. The inhabitants subsist chiefly on fish and other animal food, which they store for winter use, and which the intense frost preserves from corruption.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MANKIND.
complexions, &c. The peculiarities of colour in the human race are chiefly four white, yellow, red, and black; but each of these admits of a great variety of shades. A large proportion, including almost all the inhabitants of tropical countries, exhibit tints of colour approximating more or less closely to black. In the copper-coloured race of America black is combined with red. In the Caucasian race the skull is large, the mouth small, the teeth vertical, the cheek-bones not projecting, and the whole frame symmetrical. In the Mongolian race the skull is small, the face flat, the cheek-bones projecting, the eyes small and oblique, the nose small and pointed, the mouth well formed, the stature generally short, the trunk long in comparison with the extremities, the wrists and ancles weak. In the Negro race the head is small and laterally compressed, having a broad fiat nose, a protruding lower jaw, a wide mouth with thick lips, and large, solid teeth, with the incisors placed obliquely forward; the hair frizzled, coarse, and apparently woolly; the leg-bones rather convex front, the calves high, the heel bone flat, the skin generally black.
LESSON 126.
dark coloured as those of Egypt, South America, South Sea Islands, India, &c.
black as the negroes, and many other Africans, and some of the Asiatics.
Vegetable food "Man," says Dr. Dick, "is evidently destined to be, in part at least, frugivorous. The savage, educated by nature," [and in the enjoyment of a warm climate,] "prefers the simplest dish of vegetables to the long luxurious viands of the great."
Indolent languor and debility are induced not only by heat, but also by the soft, sugary, acidulated, and mucilaginous nature of the diet in hot climates.
strong passions the nervous system is active, and this excites the mind, its feelings, and passions.
Selfish indulgence occasioned greatly by the irksomeness attending physical exertion..
Spontaneous abundance vegetables, fruits, and spices. Animal food is generally rejected by the people of hot countries, and the use of fruits occasions acute disorders of the bowels, to remedy which, their indigenous spices are abundantly employed.
some of the trees as the maguey, the various palms, the bread-fruit, the plantain, &c.
light complexion because the sanguine temperament predominates, and the heat is not so continuous as to effect any permanent change on the skin.
strength of body Courage is found allied with moral sensibility; the culture of reason with that of the fine arts; and both with attachment to Corporeal and warlike exercises: hence the dreamy indolence of the South, and the brutal violence of the North, are in temperate climes found equally moderated. Dr. R. Dick.
Few in number marriages are not contracted at so early an age as in more genial climes.
dark complexions owing to their phlegmatic temperaments.
Low in stature cold prevents the growth of both animals and plants.
little intelligence the mind is so engrossed about the means of providing food to sustain life, that there are but few opportunities for cultivating the mental faculties.
active occupations these are forced upon them owing to the difficulty of obtaining food.
animal food large quantities may be eaten with impunity in cold climates; the stimulus it imparts is necessary for sustaining the physical energies against the debilitating effects of the cold. Vegetables again predominate as food in warm countries.
QUESTIONS 126.
What is the colour of the inhabitants of the torrid zone?
On what sort of food do they generally live? Is that food suitable for them?
Characterize them as to habits, temper, and mental improvement.
How is their natural habit of indolence favoured by nature?
What complexions have those who inhabit the temperate zones?
How are they more favourably endowed than their brethren of hot climates?
What effect has the variety of seasons upon the character of the inhabitants of the temperate zones?
What mental qualification does this variety call into activity and develop?
What is noticeable of the inhabitants of the frigid zones in regard to their numbers?
What Is the colour of their complexions?
Describe their size and mental qualifications.
What circumstances tend to depress their mental powers?
Are they as indolent u those who live in hot countries?
Upon what do they generally subsist?
What facilities for laying up stores of food does the intense frost confer on them?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
To what extent do dark tints prevail in the complexions of the human race?
What people exhibit the black tint combined with red?
Mention some characteristics of the Caucasian race.
Contrast their features with those of the Mongolians.
What appearance of head and face does the negro exhibit?
What peculiarity does the leg of the negro show?
Of what race are the small pointed nose and small oblique eyes an indication?
Digging in a churchyard, a sexton threw out a small skull compressed laterally, the mouth of which showed solid teeth whose incisors inclined forward, and with a protruding lower jaw ; What Information could you have given as to the person buried there?
What structure of leg-bone could you have prepared him to expect if the entire skeleton had been disinterred?
SECTION XVI. OF CLIMATES.
By the word climate is meant the degree of heat to which any portion of the globe is subject.
As a general rule, a climate is warm in proportion to its nearness to the equator, and cold in proportion to its nearness to the poles; so that the torrid zone is hotter than any portion of either of the temperate zones, while the temperate zones are warmer than any part of the frigid zones. But to this general rule there are several exceptions.
The climate of a country depends upon its formation, as well as its nearness to either the equator or the poles; upon its nearness to the sea; and upon the direction in which it faces. Mountains and hilly countries are colder than valleys or plains leaning towards the equator. Islands have less heat and cold than inland parts of continents. Countries lying towards the west, and bordering on the sea, are warmer than those towards the east under the same circumstances. And wherever there is a large tract of land towards the pole there is always more cold than when such a tract is interrupted by sea. Upon the whole, the continent of America is colder than that of Europe and Asia; the coldest part of the world discovered being 100 degrees west longitude, and 80 degrees north latitude.
In temperate climates rains are frequent; in tropical climates, periodical. Countries that lie between 5 and 10 degrees of latitude have commonly two rainy and two dry seasons. Tropical countries more than 10 or 12 degrees from the equator, have only one rainy and one dry season. In the polar climates rains are scanty and irregular; while there are rainless regions in several parts of the earth.
Countries with a high temperature and great moisture have a luxuriant vegetation, while those of a high temperature and little moisture are arid and sterile. The plains of India, which are visited annually with a rainy season that lasts some months, are so rich in vegetation, that many of the most delicate productions flourish there spontaneously. The deserts of Arabia and Africa, with an equal temperature, but without moisture, can scarcely produce vegetation enough to break the monotony of the desert from one extremity to the other.
The climatology of the earth has been divided into twenty-five parts, for plants, trees, shrubs, &c. while twelve of them produce nearly all the plants which are used as food for man
TEMPERATURES MODES OF OBSERVING THEM.
general rule - exceptions - Places equally distant from the equator receive very different amounts of heat. Amongst innumerable examples of this proposition may be mentioned the mean annual temperature of Quebec, in latitude 47 degrees N., which is nearly the same as that of Drontheim on the coast of Norway, in latitude 63 degrees N. The prevalence of clouds and mist give a milder climate than where the skies are clear, though exhibiting the same mean annual temperature. England and Holland are examples of this difference.
The mean temperature of a day is obtained by taking the sum of the temperature at sunrise, at two oclock, P.M., and at sunset, and dividing the result by three. That of a month is found by dividing the sum of diurnal temperatures by the number of days. That of the year by dividing the sum of mean monthly temperatures by twelve. Everywhere there is a certain mouth whose mean temperature is identical with that of the year. In our climate the month is October.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 127.
climatefrom klima (Gr.), that which inclines or declines, so called because in numbering them they decline from the equator and incline towards the pole; in a general sense, this term embraces the temperature, the seasons, the natural productions, &c, of a country. There are 24 astronomical climates between the equator and each polar circle, and 6 from thence to each pole. The first climate commences at the equator, where the longest day is 12 hours, and terminates in the latitude where it is 12 and a half hours long; the second climate ends at 13 hours of length; the third at 13 and a half; thus advancing progressively half an hour for each climate to the 24th, which is bounded by each polar circle, and at which the longest day is 24 hours. The 25th climate is the first climate of months, where the sun is continually above the horizon, a period varying from one day to one month; the 26th climate has from one to two months of perpetual sunshine; and so on to the 30th, which, at its end, or at each pole, gives a continuance of the sun above the horizon of six months. Goodacre.
several exceptions caused by local peculiarities, and alluded to in the lessons, and in the following note
climate... . depends, &. 1. The latitude of a country; that is, its position with reference to the equator. 2. Elevation of the land above the sea-level. 3. The proximity to, or remoteness of a country from, the sea. 4. The slope of a country, or the aspect it presents to the suns course. 5. The position and direction of the mountain chains. 6. The nature of the soil. 7. The degree of cultivation and improvement to which the country has arrived. 8. The
prevalent winds. 9. The annual quantity of rain that falls in a country." Hughes Physical Geography.
Mountains - the higher we rise above the level of the sea, the more the air is rarefied, and rendered incapable of sustaining the heat of the solar rays; hence we find, that the summits of lofty mountains are often covered with Snow.
Islands - as the greatest equability of temperature is experienced it sea, so
the winds passing over it diminish the violence of the summer's heat, and moderate the severity of winter in insular countries.
Rains - periodical within the tropic. one half of the year Is characterized by extreme moisture, the other half by drought.
rainless regions the deserts of Africa sad Arabia, the table-lands of Thibet and Mongolia, the tableland of Mexico, and the western declivity of the Andes of Peru.
Arid - from aridus, parched, from areo (Lat.), to dry up; dried, scorched.
Sterile from sterilis (Lat.), barren; that cannot bear or bring forth, opposed to fertile.
Monotony from monos, one, and tono, (Gr.), tone; continuance or perfect uniformity of tone.
Climatology twelve the principal food-plants are the cereals (barley rye, oats, wheat, buckwheat, maize, rice, and millet), the olive, date-palm, banana, potato, cocoa-nut, bread-fruit, sugar, coffee, tea, cocoa, spice, and the umbelliferous, cruciform, and leguminous vegetables.
QUESTIONS 127.
What does the term climate mean?
What is the general rule as to the heat of climates?
What exceptions to this general rule are due to the formation of country? to its nearness to the sea? to its direction, east or west?
What comparison does the heat of America bear with that of Asia or Europe?
What are the degrees, longitude and latitude, of the coldest country discovered?
Where are rains frequent?
Where are they periodical?
What is the difference between frequent and periodical?
How many seasons of rain and drought have countries between 5 and 10 degrees of
latitude?
Are the rains abundant in the polar regions?
Are there any countries where rains do not fall?
What are the conditions favourable to a luxuriant vegetation?
What of an arid and sterile state?
Name some districts remarkable for sterility.
What districts are peculiarly favourable to vegetation?
How many of the twenty-five climates produce most of the food-plants?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What is noteworthy In the temperature of places at equal distances from the equator?
Name two pieces different in latitude, but possessing the same mean annual temperature.
What difference of latitude is there in these two places?
What circumstances produce mildness of climate?
Show how this cause is adequate to produce the effect ascribed to it.
Mow do we find the mean temperature of a day? a month? a year?
What law holds good in regard to coincidence of the actual temperature of a place with its mean temperature taken for a year?
When does such coincidence occur in our climate?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III
Lesson 128. Productions of Climates.
The first, or equatorial climate, comprises a belt of the earth, extending from the equator to 15 degrees north and south of it the hottest part of the torrid zone. The countries are chiefly those of the Indian archipelago in Asia, the central part of Africa, and the northern part of South America. The vegetable productions of this climate are the hottest spices, such as nutmeg, mace, ginger, cloves, pepper, cayenne; and many cooling fruits, such as the cocoa-nut, pine-apple, bread-fruit, and banana. The chief grains are rice, millet, and maize; but the inhabitants have other preparations of food from various plants, such as sago, tapioca, and arrow-root. Several kinds of timber, and many materials used in the arts, are produced in this climate; among these are India-rubber, gutta percha, sandal-wood, ebony, gamboge, and turmeric. The ferns, which in the northern climates are low herbaceous plants, become trees, and resemble palms, in this climate. The bamboo attains the height of sixty feet in a few months, and is so large that one joint will contain a gallon of water; some portions of its hollow stem are used for garden-pots.
The second climate is another narrow belt, further north and south of the equator, extending from 15 to 23 and a half degrees North and South, or the tropical circles. It produces many fragrant spices and woods, and delicious fruits. Some of the productions of the first climate grow naturally in the second, others more tender need to be cultivated with care. Among the productions of this climate are the cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh, aloes, and cassia; the date-palm, the cacao plantfrom which we obtain chocolate and cocoa; the coffee-tree, the sugar-cane, the tamarind, the pine-apple, the bread-fruit, and the banana; also cotton, tobacco, and indigo; maize, rice, and millet.
In both these climates the coup-de-soleil or sun-stroke, is dangerous at certain seasons to those who are exposed to the fierce beams of the mid-day sun.
DISSEMINATION OF SEEDS OF PLANTS.
Every varying degree of temperature is suited to the growth of some plant other. The red snow-plant tinges the snow of high mountains, while several kinds of plants grow and attain maturity in boiling springs. Plants may be naturalized in any country where the temperature and atmospheric phenomena are similar to those of the countries in which they are indigenous. Four chief causes are concerned in distributing the seeds of plants over the surface of the earth. The seeds drop into rivers, or are blown there by the wind, and borne to distant parts of the banks, or even wafted on ocean currents to remote continents. Besides the wind and water, animals and man assist in transporting plants from their original place of growth. Birds carry with them the seeds of the fruits they feed on and deposit them where they rest thus the different parts of creation work together like portions of a contrived machine.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 128.
equatorial climate is eminently the region of spices, of palms, and bananas.
Indian Archipelago also called the Spice Islands; the principal of them are Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, New Guinea, and the Philippine Islands. This is the country of the Malays; the clove, the nutmeg, the pepper, and the ginger are its most characteristic plants.
South America the elevated region of South America is that of medicinal barks, from 1,200 to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea.
Africa in the western part grows the baobab, or monkey-bread, the largest known tree in the world.
Rice undoubtedly holds the first rank among the grains which support the human race; it is often the sole food in India and China: if the crop falls, famine ensues.
maize giving the most abundant, but the most uncertain, crops of corn; originally from America, and, cultivated there before it was known to Europeans.
Second climate the tree ferns and gigantic figs (among them the banyan tree of India, with its hundreds of trunks) are the chief characteristic trees of this climate, which has also aromatic woods, barks, and gums.
sugar-cane though this plant belongs to the torrid zone, it may be cultivated in much lower temperatures. The districts which supply Europe with sugar are the West India islands, Guyana, and Brazil ; Mauritius, Bourbon, Bengal, Siam, Java, the Philippine Islands, and China. Louisiana chiefly supplies America.
Coffee this plant succeeds best in the hottest regions, but is cultivated in temperatures as low as those which supply sugar; viz., where the average heat is 67 or 68 degrees.
date-palm, cocoa, bread-fruit, banana these are the only arborescent vegetables in the whole world which are cultivated as food-plants; they furnish in their own regions the chief food of the people. Most of the food-plants in every clime are such as come to perfection in a few months.
Indigo one of the chief commercial products of India; it is extracted from the leaves and small branches of several leguminous plants; the dye has been manufactured in India from time immemorial. It has recently been introduced into America.
QUESTIONS 128.
What part of the earth is included in the first climate?
What countries are in this climate?
What are the productions of this climate as to fruits? - to grains? as to trees? as to other vegetables?
Mention some of the more important vegetable materials we obtain from it.
To what height does the bamboo some times attain?
In what space of time will it attain this magnitude?
How much liquid will one joint sometimes hold?
For what gardening purpose are portions of its stem used?
What is the extent of the second climate?
Tell me some of its productions.
Are any of the plants of the equatorial climate found there?
How can they be reared in a temperature so much lower than that of the
first climate?
What valuable plants are produced in this climate?
Which of them are of the most importance to us?
On which of them do the natives of the climate chiefly depend?
What dangerous effect has a sudden stroke of the sun upon man in both the first and second climates?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What property, favourable to their distribution in every extreme of temperature, is found in plants?
What plant vegetates in snow?
What evidence have we that the contrary extreme is not unfavourable to
certain plants?
How do rivers assist in the dissemination of plants?
If seeds are borne to a spot favourable for their growth, what purpose is answered?
Supposing them to be carried to a locality unfavourable for germination does any evil result?
What other circumstances favour the spread of vegetation?
How do the various parts of the creation thus contribute to the general good?
May we conclude that this was the intention of the all-wise Creator?
SECTION XVI. OF CLIMATES.
Lesson 129. Production, of Climates. (Continued.)
In the third climate, which includes the coast of Guinea, and extends along the western coast of Africa from 20 degrees north to 20 degrees south of the equator, many of the productions of the second are found. The nutmeg tree which grows in the first climate spontaneously, and in the second if cultivated, requires in the third to be matted up to protect it from the cold during the rainy season; that cold being equal to the heat of a British summer. The sugar-cane, the cotton-plant, rice, almonds, tobacco, jalap, the mahogany tree, and maize, are all natives of the third climate, but some of them are also cultivated in the first and second, as the maize, which also extends into colder climates as far as the seventh. Several of the palms are also natives of the third climate; other productions of this climate are the Peruvian bark, allspice, coffee, tamarinds, senna, several gums and balsams, logwood, and yams.
In the fourth climate which lies between 20 and 40 degrees north and south of the equator, eastwards, as China, the orange tree begins to be found, also the tea-tree, the mulberry, the melon, the cucumber, the dahlia, the cactus, and the fuchsia, and the sugar-cane ends. Many plants of warmer climates are here cultivated, as indigo, maize, cotton, tobacco, and rice.
In the fifth climate, which includes about the same latitudes, but more westerly, as Spain, we find the fig, the pomegranate, the mulberry, and the olive; aloes and almonds are still produced, and the cultivation of cotton and tea ends. The cork-tree and the cedar belong to this climate, and many of our well-known garden-flowers and plants, as the tulip, the hyacinth, the iris, lavender, mignonette, the magnolia, and the rhododendron. The palms end, the date palm extends to the south of the Mediterranean, but not further. Heaths and geraniums belong to this climate, the finest of which we receive from the Cape of Good Hope. The vines of Canary and Madeira also belong to this climate.
PROGRESS OF VEGETATION.
The carpet of flowers and verdure spread over the crust of our planet is unequally woven. It is thick where the sun rises high in the heavens, and thin towards the poles, where returning frosts destroy the opening buds of spring and the ripening fruits of autumn. Everywhere, however, man finds some plants to minister to his support and enjoyment. If new land is formed, the organic forces are ready to cover with vegetation the nakedness of the rock, and prepare the raw material, of which the earth is formed, for contributing to the support of organic beings of a higher grade than the vegetable. Lichens form the first covering of the rock; these are succeeded by mosses, grasses, herbaceous plants, and shrubs or bushes, which afterwards give way to lofty forest trees. In the course of this progressive increase, each zone reserves to itself its peculiar beauties. Thus to the tropics belong variety and grandeur of vegetable form, while meadows and green pasture are the peculiar aspects of the north. Humboldt.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 129.
third climate this climate, to a great extent, partakes of the nature of the tropical climate, though its difference is seen in the greater care requisite for the production of tropical plants in it.
Western Africa the baobab attains the extraordinary size of 34 feet in diameter; it would, consequently, require 20 big boys, joined hand to hand, to encircle its trunk; its top is umbrella shaped.
nutmeg tree the Dutch endeavoured to extirpate this tree from all the Molucca Islands except Banda, that they might enjoy a monopoly of its produce; but it is said that the wood pigeon conveyed its seeds to other islands as favourable for its growth. It is now grown in the southern parts of both peninsulas of India, in the Mauritius, and also in the tropical regions of the western hemisphere. The four larger of the Banda Isles are appropriated exclusively to the growth of nutmegs.
cotton plant there are a great number of species of this plant, but there are only three principal kinds : l, herbaceous; 2, shrub; and 3, tree-cotton. The first and most valuable is an annual plant, which grows eighteen inches or two feet high, and is cultivated in the United States, China, &c.; the second is found in all the countries of the first; and the third grows in India, China, on the west coast, and in the interior of Africa, as well as in some parts of America.
Tobacco said to be so called from an island in the West Indies; perhaps Tobasco, in the bay of Campeachy; indigenous in America; affords no edible fruit, root, or other nutritious part; has neither beauty nor sweet odour; but, on the contrary, has a disagreeable smell and taste; produces, when eaten, nausea, vomiting, and giddiness, and, if in large quantitities, death: yet, with all these forbidding qualities, and with the addition of being high in price from the duties charged upon it, it is used extensively for smoking, chewing, and as snuff.
tea tree next to sugar, coffee, and cotton, tea forms one of the most important articles of commerce. It is most sccesafL1lly cultivated between the parallels of latitude 25 degrees and 33 degrees north, with a mean annual temperature of 61 to 72 degrees. The principal tea districts in China are between the above latitudes and the meridians of longitude 115 degrees and 122 degrees east; but almost every province of China produces tea of some kind. Tea is at present under cultivation in the north-western provinces of India. Though not in itself nutritious, tea has the remarkable property of enabling us to support life on a much less nourishing diet than we could use without it.
date-palm Africa and Arabia, the vast desert zones, have received this plant to preserve the natives from perishing. The slopes of mount Atlas are called The Country of Dates. It requires a dry, warm climate. Each tree yields annually from 150 to 250 lb. of fruit.
QUESTI0NS 129.
What parts of the earth are comprised In the third climate?
What is its extent north and south of the equator?
Under what circumstances are the productions of the first and second climates grown in this?
To what temperature of which we have experience, is the cold of this climate equal?
Enumerate some of the plants of this climate.
Do any of its productions thrive in the first and second?
How far does the fourth climate extend north end south of the third?
Name some of the plants peculiar to the fourth.
What other plants of warmer climates grow in this?
What parts are included in the fifth climate?
What are its general productions?
What plants of warm countries cease to grow in the fifth climate?
How far does the growth of the date extend?
To what climate do heaths and geraniums belong?
Where are the Canary Isles?
Where is Madeira?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Where do the flowers and verdure of the earth exhibit most luxuriance?
In what parts are they more scanty?
Account for these differences.
How are the wants of man specially cared for?
With what are the naked rocks of new land soon covered?
What is the ultimate purpose of this vegetation?
Describe the vegetable productions which succeed each other on new land.
How does this new vegetation indicate its geographical locality?
What are the characteristics of tropical vegetation?
What are the peculiar features of the north?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 130. Productions of Climates. (Continued.)
In the sixth climate, which lies about 40 to 46 degrees north of the equator, as the south of France, the plains begin to be covered with grass, and wheat is cultivated; though it is grown nearer to the equator on elevated lands. The laurel, the nut, the chestnut., and the walnut, the orange, the lemon, the fig, and the vine flourish here the vine producing such strong wines as port and sherry; the apricot and peach are natives of this climate.
The seventh climate, which lies from 44 to 53 degrees north, as Switzerland, still furnishes the vine; the wines obtained from them being lighter, as Burgundy, claret, and tokay; in this climate the oak begins to flourish, and wheat is extensively cultivated. Maize ends, and wheat supplies its place. The olive ceases, and pasturelands which produce butter begin. The pear, the damson, the cherry, the maple, and the lilac are of this climate.
In the eighth climate, which extends from 50 to 60 degrees on the western coast of the old world, as central France, the vine yields only the lightest wines, as Champagne and Rhenish, and vineyards cease; but the apple, barley, and the hop begin; and cider and beer take the place of wine. The ninth climate, Germany, about the same latitude in both hemispheres, produces the best apples, pears, quinces, and other hardy fruits and vegetables; the tenth, including the British Isles and similar climates, the best oaks and elms, and many of the smaller fruits, such as the gooseberry, the raspberry, the blackberry, the cranberry, and the bilberry; these are also found in the eleventh, as Holland which is the climate of hemp and flax, and in which oaks and wheat end. The twelfth climate, from 60 to 70 degrees on the western coast of the old world, and from 55 to 59 degrees, interior of the Asiatic continent, yields barley, oats, and rye, though too cold for wheat; its forest trees are the beech, the elm, the maple, the poplar, and many firs and pines. The birch, the alder, the aspen, the larch, the fir, and the pine grow, and oats ripen in colder temperatures than the twelfth climate.
MAIZE, WHEAT, ETC.
maize ends In the equatorial countries of America, maize is cultivated, according to Humboldt, at an elevation of 7,600 feet. But in certain protected regions of the Bolivian Andes Mr. Pentland has seen it growing luxuriantly as high as 12,000 feet. In Europe, when cultivated in the open fields for its grain, its northern unit extends to latitude 47 degrees. Maize is not influenced by the cold of winter, but it requires heat in summer.
Wheat Two principal varieties are chiefly recognised viz., summer and winter wheat. Wheat is cultivated in Scotland to the north of Inverness (lat. 58 degrees), in Norway to Drontheim (lat. 64 degrees); in Sweden to the parallel of lat. 62; in western Russia to the environs of St. Petersburgh (lat. 60 degs 15), while in central Russia the polar limits of cultivation appear to coincide with the parallel of 59 degrees or 60 degrees.
Winter cold has very little influence in arresting the progress of agriculture towards, the north. The spring sown wheat escapes the cold of winter, and that Sown in autumn is protected by a thick covering of snow. - Johnson's Physical Atlas.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 130.
the sixth climate the warmer part of the temperate zone.
Nut from nux (Lat.), a nut.
Chestnut from castanea (Lat.), supposed to be so called from Castania, a city of Thessaly, where there was a great abundance of this fruit.
Lemon from leimon (Gr.), field, meadow; so called from the colour of the unripe fruit.
the laurel this is the climate in which the evergreen trees flourish most, as the myrtle, arbutus, laurustinus, cypress, juniper, &c.
the vine it would scarcely be imagined that the curved rough stem, the twisted branches, and the unattractive green flowers of this plant would produce such beautiful and delicious fruit. France produces the largest quantities, and the best wines. The other wine countries are Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and the valleys of the Rhine and Danube.
Port a wine so called because obtained from Portugal.
Sherry a wine procured from Xeres, or Sheres, in Spain.
apricotfrom apricus (Lat.), sunny; this fruit requires a sunny situation.
Peach from persicum (Lat), evidently so called because originally brought from Persia.
seventh climate still in the warm temperate zone.
Wheat though maize may be cultivated with care and attention, yet it gives way to wheat in this climate.
the olive its oil is of the first importance as an article of diet, as well as in many arts. The olive and the cornel are the only trees in which oil is expressed from the pulpy part of the fruit, and not from the seed alone. Some parts of the south of Italy are one continued olive grove. An old tree will sometimes yield olives sufficient to produce 200 gallons of oil. The olive is cultivated in the old world from latitude 3 degrees to latitude 44 degrees north and south of the equator. The extremes of heat and cold of the new world are not fvourable to its growth.
Damson from Damascus, where it grew abundantly.
Cherry from Cerasus, In Asia Minor, its native place.
vineyards cease the profitable culture of the vine ceases at latitude 48 degrees, the best wines being produced between 40 degrees and 45 degrees.
Barley hop - the plants necessary for producing ale, beer, and porter, which, in the colder countries, supply the want of wine.
Oaks our forefathers in Britain considered the oak as sacred; their priests abode in oak forests; and oak boughs and oak leaves were used in their idolatrous religious services. The oak is now chiefly employed in ship building, and in other works in which great strength and durability are required. The tree grows faster in warmer climates; but its qualities as a timber are impaired by rapid growth.
Oats from et-an (A.S.), to eat, because everywhere the food of horses, and in some places of men.
oats and rye the chief grains of Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Finland.
firpine these timbers are best when of slow growth in cold and exposed situations. The greater number of these large families of trees are found In temperate climates, in Europe, Siberia, China, and the cold parts of North America; but they are distributed from the arctic regions to the Indian Archipelago.
QUESTIONS 130.
What degrees of latitude are Included in the sixth climate?
Name some or its countries.
With what do the plains begin to be covered in this climate?
Name some of the plants that flourish in it.
What degrees of latitude mark the seventh climate?
Where do vineyards cease?
What celebrated forest trees make their appearance Lu this climate?
What kind of grain ends here, and what other kind begins to be general?
What tree ceases to be found?
How is the place of olive oil supplied in colder climates than those of the olive?
What sort of wines are produced in the eighth climate?
What climate embraces Germany?
What are its productions?
What is the climate of the British Isles?
For what is the climate of Holland remarkable?
What are the latitudes of the twelfth climate?
What grains does it produce?
What forest trees grow in it?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
At what elevation is maize cultivated in the equatorial regions?
How high has it been seen growing in the Bolivian Andes?
What is the northern limit in Europe at which maize can be cultivated to maturity?
Seeing that maize is not injured by cold in winter, how happens it that the arctic regions are unsuitable for its culture?
What two varieties of wheat are chiefly recognized?
What is the northern limit to the cultivation of wheat In Scotland?
In what country does its culture extend to the latitude of 61 degrees?
What is its limit in Sweden?
What difference of range is observable in its distribution over Russia?
What Influence has the winter cold in arresting cultivation towards the north?
How does the wheat sown in autumn escape injury from the frosts of winter?
LESSON XVI. OF CLIMATES.
Lesson 131. Productions of Climates. (Continued.)
Barley cannot be sown in Lapland till the month of June, yet so warm is the short summer, that vegetation proceeds with extraordinary rapidity, and in two months it is ready for the harvest. The trees which are found to approach the limits of perpetual snow are the dwarf birch, the dwarf willow, and the hoary or cold alder; they do not exceed two or three feet in height. Beyond their limits lichens, mosses, sedges, and chickweed are found. There is but little vegetation within the Polar Circle, and none near the poles.
The tropical plants are formed for living under a vertical sun, for enduring long droughts and periodical rains; the plants of the polar regions resist the chilly influences of their climate, start suddenly into life, and complete their growth in the few weeks allotted to them. Every parallel of latitude has its peculiarities of weather, its longer or shorter duration of mildness and rigour, rain and drought, light and darkness, and to all these the plants indigenous to the climates are adapted. As a cultivator of plants, man scarcely ever bestows much care on those productions which are natives of the soil. He improves the soil by his skilful labours, and thus renders it fit for nourishing a greater variety of useful plants. Grasses, grains, fruit-trees, shrubs, forest-trees, flowers, and eatable vegetables alike receive his care, if they are strangers to the soil; our gardens, fields, and orchards attest his success by the variety and abundance of their plants, which are chiefly natives of foreign climates.
By the great variety of vegetables the gratification of man's appetite is copiously provided for; and by their distribution through various regions of the earth, the social intercourse of nations is encouraged.
LIMITS OF BARLEY.
Barley This cereal is cu1tivated farther north than any of the other grains; fields of it are seen at the northern extremity of Scotland, in the Orkney Islands, and in Shetland (lat. 61 degrees N.), and even at the Faroe Islands (lat. 61 degrees to 62 degs 15 N.). Iceland (lat. 63 degs 30 to 66 degrees N.) does not produce it, although an industrious population have made every exertion to acquire some species of cerealia. In western Lapland the limit of barley is under lat. 70 degrees, near Cape North. In Russia, on the shores of the White Sea, it is between the parallels of 67 degrees and 68 degrees on the western side, and about 66 degrees on the eastern side, beyond Archangel. In central Siberia, between lat. 58 degrees and 59 degrees. Such is the sinuous curve which limits the cultivation of barley, and consequently that of all the cereals. A little farther north the people live on the products of their cattie, as in the high Alps, or by hunting or fishing, according to locality. But beyond the limits of barley there occurs a narrow zone, in which early potatoes are cultivated, and where the snow does not prevent the raising of some lichens, some fruits, barks, or wild roots. Johnson's Physical Atlas.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 131.
Barley this grain has the widest distribution, as to culture, of all the cereals, extending from Lapland to the high lands at the equator.
short summer its long and intensely cold winter is followed by a short and fervid summer, which quickly brings plants to maturity.
Trees large tracts are covered with birch trees, firs, and pines.
Lichens 2,400 species are known; one of them, the tripe de roche, afforded Sir John Franklin and his companions a poor substitute for food.
Mosses 800 species are known, of which a great part belong to the arctic regions, and constitute a large portion of its vegetation.
Sedges from seco (Lat.), to cut; so we say, sword-grass; widely distributed in both the frigid and torrid z1es; on the western coast of Africa thousands of acres are covered with the papyrus, one of the sedges.
Tropical plants these plants present us with the largest leaves and flowers known, as the baobab, the banyan, &c.; the most succulent, plump, fleshy forms, as if to contain the greatest possible quantity of vegetable matter in the smallest possible volume, as the cactus, the aloes, &c.; the most concentrated products, as the spices; and the most powerfully scented woods, barb, gums, and resins.
long droughts, &c. wet and dry seasons; in some latitudes one, and in others two, of each.
Peculiarites the adaptation of plants to climates, and of climates to plants, is also seen in the desert regions of Gobi, Arabia, Siberia, &c.; there the plants are of a dry, ligneous nature, often clothed with white down, or of gray hues, imitating the colour of the dust of the desert.
a cultivator by artificial heat, by well-directed labour, by observation and intelligence, he transfers plants and animals from other regions, and makes them subservient to his pleasure or his profit.
skilful labours he converts prairies, heaths, and woods into fields and gardens; dries up marshes, extirpates noxious animals, and removes mountains, or cuts through them, to make artificial roads.
QUESTIONS 131.
What grain can be reared in Lapland?
At what season only can it be produced?
What is there remarkable as to its production?
What trees are peculiar to the extreme north?
When trees cease, what kinds of plants are found?
By what peculiarity of structure are tropical plants so well adapted to their climate?
Show that the polar plants are equally fitted for their peculiar climate.
What is meant by different latitudes having their own peculiarities of weather?
Show me that the indigenous plants of every climate are adapted to it.
Upon what plants does man bestow most care?
What is gained by his efforts and skill in improving the soil?
How are the skill and care of man as a cultivator proved?
Has man a fixed or a variable appetite?
Is this desire provided for by the cultivator?
What other important advantage is the result of this general cultivation?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Which of the cereals best endures a rigorous climate?
How far north in the British islands is it seen?
What islands to the north of our dominions produce it?
What authority is there for saying that barley is unsuitable for growth in Iceland?
How far north does it extend in Lapland?
For what reason can it be said that the boundary line of barley growth is also the line which limits the growth of other cereals?
What important change takes place in the food men use a short way beyond this line?
What useful vegetable extends its growth a short way beyond the range of the cereals?
What other vegetables occupy this narrow zone?
What purpose do these subserve?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 132. Productions of Climates. (Continued.)
Wherever man is active as a cultivator he bestows less care on those plants which the land naturally produces than on those which be introduces from other climates.
Scarcely one of the plants which occupy our fields and gardens is indigenous to the country. The walnut and peach come to us from Persia; the apricot from Armenia. From Asia Minor and Syria we have the cherry-tree, the fig, the pear, the pomegranate, the plum, and the mulberry. The vine which is now cultivated is not a native of Europe, it is found wild on the shores of the Caspian, in Armenia, and Caramania. The corn plants are certainly strangers, though their birth-place seems to be an impenetrable secret. Some have fancied that barley is found wild on the banks of the Semara, in Tartary, rye in Crete, wheat at Baschkiros, in Asia; but this is held to be doubtful. The potato, which has been so widely diffused over the world in modern times, and has added so much to the resources of life, has been found equally difficult to trace back to its wild condition.
Our fields are covered with herbs from Holland, and roots from Germany; with Flemish farming and Swedish turnips; our hills with forests of the firs of Norway. The chestnut and poplar of the south of Europe adorn our lawns, and below them flourish shrubs and plants from every climate in profusion. In the meantime Arabia improves our horses, China our pigs, North America our poultry, Spain our sheep, and almost every country sends its dog. The products which are ingredients in our luxuries, and which we cannot naturalize at home, we raise in our colonies; the cotton, coffee, and sugar of the east, are thus transplanted to the farthest west, and man lives in the middle of a rich and varied abundance, which depends on the facility with which plants and animals and modes of culture can be transferred into lands far remote from those in which nature had placed them. Whewells Bridgewater Treatise.
MAN AS AN AGRICULTURIST.
wherever man is active, &c. When man becomes an agriculturist, the soil is cleared, brought under the mastery of the plough and spade, and sown in tracts of varying extent; sometimes the heaths and brushwood are cleared off by fire, leaving their ashes to manure the land; marshes are laid dry; water drained from damp meadows; rivers are narrowed; coasts protected by dykes; bays dammed in; and the sea bottom changed, first into pasture, then into arable land. Foreign plants are then brought in, as our corn plants, many of our fruit trees, and our kitchen vegetables. Thus cotton and indigo were conveyed from India to America, coffee from Abyssinia to Arabia, and thence to the West Indies and Brazil. Man also increases the number of natures productions, as the many varieties of coleworts the 1,500 sorts of apples, the thousands of roses, and all the kinds of double dahlias, testify. Man even exerts an influence over climate and temperature, for the removal of forests gives the winds free play, the drainage of marshes and lakes diminishes evaporation and lessens the moisture of the atmosphere. Schouws Earth, Plants, and Man.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 132.
Indigenous from indigena, a native; born, grown, or produced in that place or country.
The vine - "The native country of the vine cannot be well ascertained; but it is probable that it must be sought in Miagrelia and Georgia, and in the
regions between Caucasus, Ararat, and Taurus; it appears to be still more common in the more eastern countries." - Schouw.
pomegranate pomo-granato (Fr.), from pomum, apple, and granum (Lat.), a grain, so named from the grains or kernels contained in the fruit.
Barley Grows spontaneously in Tartary and Sicily, two countries very distant from each other. Keith Johnston.
rye wheat - Many indications, botanical and historical, warrant the presumption that Tartary and Persia are the countries of wheat, rye, and oats. Several Greek and Roman authors believe wheat to be a native of Sicily, but this opinion has not been confirmed. Strabo says that it grows spontaneously on the banks of the Indus. Keith Johnston.
Potato The potato was generally cultivated in America at the time of its discovery; but it is only a few years since its native country was ascertained with certainty. There is little doubt that Chili is its native country; but it has also been found in a wild state in the Cordilleras of Peru. Of all vegetables suitable for the food of man, it has the widest range of cultivation. An early variety has been introduced into Iceland, and the English have succeeded in cultivating it in the mountainous regions of India. Keith Johnston.
Holland the Dutch have been long celebrated for their skill in gardening.
Germany many of our choicest flower seeds are annually imported from this country.
Norway the Norway spruce, a noble tree which rises in a straight stem from 150 to 200 feet in height; its timber is the white fir, or deal.
shrubs and plants every year new species of shrubs and trees are introduced and diffused by means of our nurserymen; many of them promise to flourish well in our climate, and to become valuable as timber trees.
Poultry much attention baa been recently directed to the improvement of our breeds of poultry; several varieties from distant countries have been introduced, especially the Shangae or Cochin China fowls.
horses it is generally considered that the English race-horses are superior in speed to any, but that the Arabian horses have more endurance of fatigue.
transplanted transplanter (Fr.), from trans, over, across, and planta (Lat.), a plain; to move a plant from one place to another.
transferred from trans, over, and fero (Lat.), to carry, to bear; borne or carried over, conveyed, transported.
QUESTIONS 132.
Upon what plants does man bestow most care?
What proportion of the plants cultivated in England are indigenous productions?
Whence came the walnut and peach?
Which is the country or the apricot?
What have we received from Syria and Asia Minor?
Where is the vine found in its native state?
Are the corn-plants indigenous to Europe?
To what locality has the origin of oats been ascribed?
Where is the native place of rye?
Is the original country of the potato known?
Whence have we obtained many of our vegetables?
Whence our roots?
Is Flemish farming known in this country?
What turnips have we received from the north of Europe? and what trees?
What trees have we received from the south of Europe?
By what horses have our own been improved?
What country has improved our breed of pigs?
What other domestic animals of our country have been improved by those of other countries?
Whence do we import many of the luxuries we enjoy?
By what means are civilization and comfort generally promoted?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What does man find it necessary to do before using the plough?
How is brushwood got rid of?
What advantage follows this method of extermination?
What is done to marshes to render them arable?
What intermediate stage is there between useless land, and land fit for the plough?
Whence are our corn plants derived?
What other plants besides cereals soon make their appearance on farm-land?
By what stages did the culture of the coffee plant reach Brazil?
Give illustrations of man increasing the number of natures productions.
What influence does he exert on climate and temperatures?
SECTION XVII. OF SOCIAL LIFE.
Lesson 133. The Domestic Relations.
In all civilized countries people live together in society or in a social condition.
The small social circle, where all the members are related to each other, is called a family. The nearest relationships that exist are those of husband and wife; and parents and children. Parents have duties to perform to their children, whom they jointly govern. The children look to their father for protection, subsistence, advice, example, and encouragement; and to their mother for nurture, comfort, kindness, and sympathy in their little troubles, and for help in the attainment of their moderate desires. A father is bound to support his children, to educate them according to his means, to have them taught a business or profession, or to put them into some way of earning an honest livelihood.
Children are bound to obey their parents, to behave with respect and gratitude to them, and to do all in their power to serve them and to make them happy. A family of children generally consists of brothers and sisters. Their intercourse ought always to be kind, their endeavour to make each other happy. When bound together by affection, they are the most natural confidants of each other, and have it in their power to help and cheer each other. The intercourse of a large family with their other relatives is not very frequent. Even brothers and sisters of a large family are frequently separated in their early years for the purposes of education or business; but such temporary separations should only strengthen the tie that binds them to each other.
The other family relations are grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, and cousins.
GOVERNMENT OF THE FAMILY.
husband and wife - The doctrines of the Scriptures attest that the husband is the head of the wife, and all sensible women allow that obedience to a good husband is a pleasant duty. Where both are equal in morality of character and in understanding, there is a perfect equality in authority i.e., reason and affection govern both; if both are morally and intellectually deficient, there is constant strife.
they jointly govern It is necessary that children should be governed, otherwise the infant would run into all kinds of danger; the child, a little older, would want to eat or drink improper things; the boy would, perhaps, wish to associate with vicious boys, while youth requires continued warnings as to dangerous courses or opinions.
brothers and sisters The older, wiser, and more careful should guide and guard the younger, weaker, and inexperienced members of the family, without being dictatorial, or tyrannical; and the younger children should submit to the guidance of those who, next to their parents, have charge over them.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 133.
Society from socius, a companion, an associate; the inhabitants of a state, of a city; a number of people united for a particular object; and, in an enlarged sense, the whole human race.
Family from familia; the wife, children, and servants of one common master or head.
husband and wife marriage was the first divine institution; the relation which the husband bears to the wife, as head and guide, is not only scriptural, but is consonant to the dictates of reason, and the natural faculties of both.
Children the offspring of marriage; stand equally related to both parents, and are bound to honour and obey both without distinction. Children, obey your parents in the Lord; Honour thy father and thy mother; these are the commands of God.
Protection from protego, protectum, to throw a covering over. The helplessness of children requires that others should protect them from danger. The instincts of nature, and the dictates of reason, enforced by the commands of God, inculcate this duty.
subsistence from subsisto, to stand under; the inability of children to supply their own wants, renders this duty necessary. How fearful, then, is the guilt of fathers who desert their children, or who, by habits of drunkenness, idleness, or other vices, waste their earnings. If any provide not for his own, and especially those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. 1 Tim. v.8.
Advice from aviser (Fr.), to advise, deduced from adviso (Lat.), to see, to look to; the ignorance and inexperience of children require that some one should guide them; and who so proper as their father?
Example probably from ex, from, and omalos (Gr.), like, i.e., one from others like it. Children generally follow in the steps of those by whom they are brought up: hence the importance of parents being upright in their conduct. A good parent's first care is, says Dr. Paley, to be virtuous himself; his second, to make his virtue as easy and engaging to those about him as their nature will admit.
nurture nourishment during the tender age.
bound to support both by natural and moral obligations, and by the law of the land. Those who desert or maltreat their offspr1ng are punishable by law. The unnatural notion that children are the property of the State rather than of their parents, which prevails in some continental countries, is, happily, not generally received in ours.
Earning ... livelihood every impediment to the acquisition of trades, professions, and callings ought to be removed. At present, partly owing to these impediments, many children grow up without having learned a trade.
Obey obedience is a sure characterist1c of a well-trained child.
Respect from respicio, respectum, to look back, to look again. Honour thy father, &c., is the fifth commandment, but the first "with promise".
Gratitude from gratus, thankful, grateful, deduced from chairo (Gr.), to rejoice. Children can never know the tender solicitude and self-denying care of parents, or they never could be ungrateful.
Intercourse from inter, between, and curro, curium, to run; as children of the same parental love, unkindness is a grievous offence against their parents. It is the interest and happiness of all to exercise mutual love and mutual forbearance; it s also the command of God to children to love one another.
QUESTIONS 133.
Is man a solitary or a social being?
Which is the first and most limited of all social circles?
Which are the nearest relationships?
What are the duties of parents?
Have children any duties to perform?
What do they owe their parents?
Whet do they owe each other?
What should be the nature of their intercourse with each other?
Who should be the principal confidants of children?
To whom should children be willing to render help and comfort at all times?
Is the intercourse of other relations constant?
For what purposes are brothers and sisters separated?
What should be the effect of these temporary separations?
Name some of the other family relations.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What high ground is there for claiming for the husband supremacy in a family?
What admission do all sensible women make?
Under what circumstances will the husband and wife possess equal authority?
What is meant by this possession of equal authority?
What are the unhappy occasions of constant strife?
Why is it requisite that children should be governed?
Now would the infant show this necessity?
What would a child somewhat older than an infant do?
In what danger would a boy be?
For what reason would it be imprudent to leave a youth to himself?
How should the older brothers and sisters behave to the younger?
How should the younger behave to the older?
CIRCLE Of KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 134. Trade and Agriculture.
In civilized society every person finds it desirable to adopt and keep to one fixed occupation; to manufactures, to trade, to commerce, to one of the arts or professions, or to the cultivation of the soil.
A manufacturer has workshops or factories in which men and machinery are employed; he has to buy the raw materials of which his articles are formed; cotton, wool, leather, skins, iron, wood, bone, dyes, are a few of the raw materials which some manufacturers require. Generally a merchant who trades with foreign countries supplies the manufacturer with many of his raw materials. When the articles are finished they generally go into the hands of the retail dealers. A retail dealer buys of a manufacturer a thousand yards of calico; he sells it again in lengths of one, two, ten, or twenty yards, and charges a higher price than he gave, for his trouble and risk. The chief manufactures of England are those of cotton, wool, silk, linen, leather; iron, and steel, tin, and other metals; pottery, soap, glass, &c.
The agriculturist cultivates the earth; he has to consider what kind of crops will be most suitable to the farm he holds, the best time of sowing, and all the other operations of husbandry; he should know what manures are the best for his land, according as it may be clay, loam, sand, gravel, peat; and according to its subsoil, whether it be limestone, gravel, or clay. He must regard the seasons for ploughing, sowing, and gathering his crops; he must store his crops well, employ the best machinery for his operations, and watch the markets so that he may sell all his produce to the best advantage.
THE INTELLIGENT AND THE MECHANICAL WORKMAN.
There are always two classes of workers one intelligent and the other mechanical. Both may do their work satisfactorily, but the former only will advance himself. He will not merely observe what is done, but will endeavour to find out how it is done, and why it is done in a certain manner. He will trace accidents to their causes, and thus guard against their recurrence. If peculiar success attends certain operations he will repeat them. Thus he acquires skill, and adds to his own value, so that he can creditably occupy a position of trust. The mechanical workman, on the other hand, does a thing well because he has done it often; but, like a machine, does it without reasoning upon it, and therefore makes no advancement. An intelligent farmer will use the dibble and drill in sowing, because it saves half the corn required by the old system of broadcasting, and will improve to the utmost all his modes of culture, when informed that an additional yield of one bushel per acre, over England, would feed an additional million of people.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 134.
Civilized society from civis, a citizen, is derived civilis, relating to a citizen or city, hence civilized. Three opinions have prevailed respecting the state of society 1, that society is progressive; 2, that it is stationary; 3, that it is retrograde. Its preponderating tendency is doubtless progressive, for the comforts and conveniences of civilization are rapidly increasing. It is not improbable that our great-grandchildren may wonder at our poor accommodations, as we do at the deficiencies of our forefathers.
Adopt from ad; to, and opto, optare, to choose, i.e., to assume, to engage in.
Occupations from ob, an augmentative particle, and capio (Lat.), to take; the act of taking or possessing a trade or calling.
Manufacturer from manus, the hand, and facio, factum, to make.
Factories - buildings, or collections of buildings, erected for the making of fabrics and wares in large quantities, generally by means of machinery.
Articles from articulus, a small joint, diminutive of artus (Lit.), a joint, a small part or portion.
Merchant from mercator, one who buys and sells. Merchants in former days travelled with goods. The importance of the merchant cannot be over estimated; by his means we exchange our fabrics and wares for the productions of other climes.
Convenience from con, together, and venio, to come; convenience therefore implies coming together. Convenience is the only apparent ground upon which a distinct class of persons, called retailers, can be justified, for the cost of articles is increased by every additional hand through which they pass in reaching the consumer. Still retailers are necessary, for the producer or wholesale dealer may live 100 miles off.
manufactures certain districts are more appropriate for some manufactures than others, arising from the materials being produced in them the existence of a water supply, minerals, clay, &c.
agriculturist - from ager, a field, and colo, cultum, to till. Agriculture employs about seven-eighths of the entire population. In earlier times but little was attempted to improve the natural fertility of the soil by artificial means. These means are now familiar to the farmers of England, and "Agricultural societies" have been established from time to time, which have been of essential benefit to every department of husbandry.
Subsoil from sub, under, and solum (Lat.). ground, soil.
Crops from croppes (A.S.), tops or crops of herbs; ears of corn, wheat, barley, hops, turnips, flax, &c. The rotation of crops, by which the fertility of land may be sustained by certain changes, was known to the Greeks and Romans.
Seasons - saison (Fr.), supposed to be derived from satio (Let.), the time of sowing, setting, planting and hence extended to the different periods for the labours of hus bandry; the times of the year.
Manures (see Notes to Lesson 108.) The Romans collected manures from nearly as many sources as the moderns do; agriculture being with them the moat honour- able of employments.
Machinery from machine (Gr.), a machine, as ploughs, harrows, grubbers, rollers, drills, hoes; reaping, winnowing, thrashing, and cutting machines; carts, waggons, &c.
Markets from mercor, to buy; the distance of a farm from markets materially affects its value.
QUESTIONS 134.
What is the general rule with respect to employments in civilized life?
What places must a manufacturer possess in order to carry forward his business?
How does he procure the raw materials he uses?
Name some of the raw materials required.
In what does the business of the merchant consist?
With whom does the manufacturer transact business after he has produced his articles?
What Is the retailers occupation?
Why is this position a legitimate and useful one?
Enumerate some of the principal manufactures of England.
What is the duty of the agriculturist?
May he raise any crops on his farm without reference to its soil?
What has he to know as to manures?
Whet as to the time of sowing, &c.?
What other duties has he to attend to, in order to make farming profitable?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Into what two main classes are all workers divisible?
Which of the two will advance himself?
What will he do besides going through his work?
On the occurrence of an accident how will be occupy himself?
What advantage will accrue from this?
Under what circumstances will he repeat operations?
What advantage does he gain by employing himself in these varied ways?
What wide contrast is there between him and a worker of the other class?
For what reason has the system of sowing broad-cast been superseded in husbandry?
If an additional bushel per acre were obtained from the corn land of England, how many extra mouths might be fed?
SECTION XVII. OF SOCIAL LIFE.
Lesson 135. Tradesmen, Mechanics, &c.
Shopkeepers are retail dealers. They sell manufactured goods, or articles of necessity or luxury, to parties who require them. Grocers sell most articles of food, except bread, meat, and vegetables. Drapers supply most of the articles or materials requisite for clothing. Ironmongers supply builders and joiners with iron work. They also sell implements and utensils of different kinds, and of the various metals.
Tailors, shoemakers, and hatters are tradesmen, although they are often shopkeepers likewise. Their trade is to make up the articles supplied by drapers, by curriers, and by others, so as to fit them for use. Printers, smiths, watchmakers, joiners, and builders are mechanics, or artisans, according as their business depends most upon machinery or upon personal skill. A good mechanic should possess an accurate knowledge of the Mechanical Powers the lever, the screw, the pulley, the inclined plane, &c.
Every department of labour has its assistant workmen. A shopkeepers assistants are called clerks, if their business consists chiefly in writing, or keeping accounts; shopmen, or shopwomen, if their business is attending to the shop or counter; and assistants, if it includes several particulars. A tradesmans workmen are called journeymen. When two or more masters join together, they are called partners.
Most masters take boys for a term of years to instruct them in their trades; these boys, are called apprentices. They have always to learn the easy, rough, and dirty parts of the business first, because the time of journeymen and of the older apprentices is too valuable to be spent on labour which a beginner, with industry and care, can perform; but as they show ability and attention they are intrusted with the higher branches of their business.
MUTUAL DEPENDENCE MUTUAL TRUST.
they sell to parties who require them Mutual dependence is one of the conditions of society. No class is independent; the buyer depends upon the seller, just as mach as the seller depends upon the purchaser. Every individual action affects society for good or ill. The relation existing between masters and servants is of the same dependent character; the one depends on the other for services, which he repays with wages. Thus their interests are in the strictest sense mutual.
clerks, assistants, &. Who must act faithfully, not merely by doing what they engage to do, but in the performance of acts of care, for which they receive no remuneration; this kind of faithfulness is a part of honesty of character. If a clerk, an assistant, or a journeyman, wastes his masters time, his goods, his materials, or his money, he is guilty of dishonesty; one who fails to save them by every means in his power is unfaithful. The man who sells his labour to another must fulfil his contract with as punctual good faith as is required from the party purchasing it, or subject himself to the liabilities which the law provides.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 135.
shopkeepers shops are open rooms, situated for the easy ingress and egress of the public, who may require to purchase goods kept therein for sale.
retail from retailler (Fr.), to cut again; deduced from talea (Lat.), a cutting; to sell in small quantities. Accounts were formerly kept by cutting notches on sticks, called tallies.
Grocers from gros (Fr.), a large quantity; the term properly applies to those who sell by wholesale, or in gross quantities. Grocers at the present time chiefly sell articles imported from other countries. The name is also traced to gras, spices; and in most European languages the term is deduced from words meaning spice or drugs.
Bread from braedan (A.S.), to nourish; there are three kinds of bread 1, biscuits (from bis, twice, and cuit (Fr.), baked, deduced from coquo, coctum (Lat), to boil or bake, twice baked), or unfermented bread, consisting only of flour and water sufficient to cause the flour to adhere, and baked very hard, so as to keep a long time; 2, bread fermented with yeast; and 3, bread unfermented, but rendered as light, soft, and spongy as fermented bread, by the chemical action of an alkali on the ingredients used.
Meat animal food, supplied to towns from the grazing districts to meat salesmen or to butchers.
Vegetables - venders of vegetables are called greengrocers.
Tailors - from tailleur (Fr.), from tailler, to cut.
Draper - from drap (Fr.), woollen cloth; one who sells or deals in cloth.
Curriers - from coroyer (Fr.), from corium, leather; leather-dressers.
Accurate - accuro (Lat.), do with ease; from ad, to, and cura, care; careful, correct.
mechanical powers (see Less. 175, &c.)
assistants - from assisto (Lat.), to help, aid, succour; from ad, to, and sisto, to stop, stay.
Clerks - kleros (GOr.), portion, inheritance, is derived clergy; they being necessarily occupied in the offices of religion, were so called because entitled to the inheritance of the Lord; hence, also, is derived the term clerk. The judges were usually created out of the sacred order, and all the inferior offices were supplied out of the lower clergy, which has occasioned their successors to be denominated clerks to the present day. This term is also applied to one employed in performing those offices which require some learning or scholarship. In commerce it signifies one who keeps accounts.
Journeymen from jour (Fr.), a day, journee, a day's work; giorno (Ital.), a day, from diurnus, dies (Lat.); d changing to g in the Italian, and g into its kindred letter j in French; a journeyman is a day workman; not a "tramp," or a man who journeys in search of employment.
Partners a partner may be either ostensible, nominal, or dormant; ostensible, when his name appears, and he has an interest in the undertaking; nominal, when he has no interest in it, though his name appears; and dormant, when his name and amount of interest in the business are concealed.
Apprentices from apprendre (Fr.), to learn; deduced from apprehendere (Lat.) to seize or lay hold of. An apprentice serves a number of years, in which he receives instruction in his master's art or calling. A statute, passed in the reign of Elizabeth, limited the exercise of trades and crafts to those who had served an apprenticeship of seven years. This was repealed in 1814. At present, apprenticeship is not required by law, except for notaries, attorneys, solicitors, proctors, apothecaries, and surgeons.
QUESTIONS 135.
What are shopkeepers?
With what do they supply the public?
What supplies are obtained from the grocer?
What is the nature of the draper's business?
Who are the chief customers of the ironmonger?
What is the business of tailors, shoemakers, and hatters, respectively?
What workpeople are called mechanics?
What knowledge should a good mechanic possess?
What is the chief employment of clerks?
Who are journeymen?
Mow is this term derived?
What do you understand by partner?
By what term are boys known who are engaged to be instructed in various trades?
What parts of their several trades are they first taught?
When are they advanced to other branches?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT N0TES.
Why is mutual dependence necessary?
How many persons are really independent?
To what extent is the buyer dependent on the seller?
What result on society have our most indifferent actions?
In what manner is the master dependent on the servant?
How, again, is the servant dependent on the master?
What obligation is laid on an assistant beyond what is stated in the mere letter of his engagement?
What is the characteristic of the person in whom this kind of faithfulness is wanting?
What degree of care is it the duty of every employed person to exhibit?
What is a contract?
What moral quality Is necessary in all who make contracts?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 136. Divers Employments.
Some kinds of employment are much more profitable than others; the hardest kind of bodily labour generally requires the least skill, and is consequently the worst paid. There must be hewers of wood and drawers of water, as well as manufacturers, agriculturists, shopkeepers, tradesmen, and skilled mechanics, in all communities.
Labour must be divided, and there must be inferior workmen to wait upon those who are more skilled. A savage does everything he requires for himself, and savages consequently continue for generations without improvement. The most unskilled labourers in civilized society obtain shelter, clothing, food, and all the necessaries of life much better than the savage. Men who acquire skill in their employment would lose that skill by waiting on themselves; others at lower wages are therefore paid to wait on them. Without this division of labour a high price must be paid for all the time the skilful workman employs, and one less labourer would be occupied. The rich do not choose to wait upon themselves, they therefore pay wages to servants to do these offices for them, and thus employment is given to many persons who would otherwise be unoccupied, and without the means of subsistence. All industry is profitable and honourable, and the most useful man is always the happiest, and useful labour is never degrading. Labour is moreover favourable to mental and bodily vigour, and is not only natural to man, but one of his greatest blessings. Many of the wisest and greatest men have toiled at the work-bench and the plough.
Labour is the instrument by which the earth is overspread with fruitfulness, the ocean subdued, and the productions of the natural world made subservient to the wants and comforts of man.
LABOUR, ITS RIGHTS AND ITS RESULTS.
Labour Labour was the first price, the original purchase money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold, or by silver, but by labour that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased. . . . The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so is it the most sacred and inviolable, The patrimony of a poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands, and to hinder him from employing his strength and dexterity in what manner be thinks proper, without injury to his neighbour, is an encroachment upon the liberty of both the workman and those who might be disposed to employ him; as it hinders the one from working at what he thinks proper, so it hinders the other from employing whom they think proper. Adam Smith.
"Labour has raised man from the condition of the savage; it has changed the desert and the forest into cultivated fields; it has covered the earth with cities and the ocean with ships; it has given us plenty, comfort, and elegance, instead of want, misery, and barbarism." - Samuel Warren.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 136.
Profitable from pro and facio, to proceed forward; advantageous, that which yields good. The gain made by sale, after wages, rent, and materials are fully paid, is profit.
least skill - skill, however, may be shown in the simplest operations; and this kind of skill enables the labourer to accomplish more work, and better work, at a considerable saving of exertion.
hewers, &c. as necessary parts, therefore, of any social structure, they are not to be despised; but their physical and social comfort, and moral improvement, should call forth the exertions of good men under more favoured circumstances.
Divided from dis, asunder, and video (Lat.), to see; to place the parts of an object, so that they may be seen asunder. Division of labour secures the greatest amount of wealth and comfort to a community; and in proportion as the principle is extended will the happiness of mankind be increased.
Savings from silva (Lat.), a wood, whence savage, formerly written salvage, a dweller in the woods. The forest the bush always presents obstacles to civilization, and the dwellers therein are shut out from the industrial associations of civilized life.
Wages the amount of wages paid for any department of labour depends upon the demand in connexion with the number of persons engaged in it.
the rich, &c. they need not therefore be necessarily idle. Some rich men shorten their lives by too close application to labour. At the present day there are thousands of rich men, who devote all their energies to the welfare of their country.
all industry that is, all lawful, useful industry.
most useful this does not mean mere personal advantage. Men, while they labour, must keep their desires for personal advantage, or for the welfare of the community, under the guidance and control of the laws of God, as revealed in nature and In his word. Labour can only be really useful so far as it is honourable.
Degrading from de, down, and gradus, a step; a step downwards. The man
who is industrious and laborious is not thereby disqualified for the society of those whose circumstances do not compel them to labour also; nor is be thus lowered in social rank.
Mental from mens (Lat.), the mind; it is only by the due employment of our faculties that we can become vigorous in mind.
Bodily the man who is indolent will necessarily lose his bodily vigour and become enfeebled.
Instrument from instrumentum, deduced from instruo, to provide, or furnish. Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, was the command end blessing of God to man.
Subservient - from subservio, to serve under; serving under, or becoming instrumental for a purpose.
QUESTIONS 138.
What kind of business is worst paid for?
Why is there a necessity for gradations in labour and remuneration?
What is the meaning of community?
Why is a division of labour necessary?
Illustrate its advantages by comparing the savage with the civilized man.
How are our lowest classes of labourers better off than the savage?
Why is it necessary, for the progress of the arts, that there should be inferior workmen?
If skilled workmen were employed in all kinds of labour, what would be the result?
What class In society do not wait upon themselves?
What class is employed to serve them?
What good is the result of this social arrangement?
Who is the happiest man in society?
What are the rewards of industry?
Show that labour is not degrading.
To what result is it favourable?
Have any working men ever risen to eminence?
Can you supply an example?
Of what is labour the instrument?
To what great end does it contribute?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How was all wealth originally procured?
To what main uses are the precious metals put?
What description of property is the most inviolable?
Why?
Wherein lies the patrimony of a poor man?
Within what limits may each of us put forth labour?
Should restrictions prevent a poor man from exerting himself within such limits, what evils result?
From what low estate has labour raised us?
What alteration has it produced In the appearance of the desert and the forest?
How does the ocean show the transforming effects of labour?
What other benefits have come in the track of labour?
SECTION XVII. OF SOCIAL LIFE.
There are two kinds of labour labour of the body and labour of the mind. Both the body and the mind require employment; for the body, if in health, cannot be always in a state of repose; neither can the mind remain inactive long; they will be engaged on something, either good or evil, either useful or mischievous.
All people are expected to be of some service to their fellow creatures. Some are consequently brought up to labour with their hands, others to study or labour with their minds. Ministers of the gospel study the holy scriptures, and explain them to their parishioners or their congregations, in order that the word of God may be better understood and obeyed. Schoolmasters instruct the young in different branches of learning and in their duties. There are also teachers for different arts and sciences, such as music, drawing, painting, natural history, &c. Physicians study the diseases to which people are subject, so as to be able to prescribe remedies for their cure. Surgeons set broken bones, and heal wounds. Lawyers study the laws of the country to enable them to advise people what to do for their protection and safety. The profession of the law includes judges, barristers, attorneys, solicitors, &c. Authors, write books for instruction or amusement.
Many professional men are authors; their labour gives them experience, which they publish for the benefit of others. All who spend time and labour in teaching others, or who follow other professions, have to spend many years in study to enable them to fulfil the duties they undertake; the result of their experience is, therefore, of value to others.
PROFESSIONAL LABOUR.
labour of the mind The working classes! are those not worthy of the name, who by their noble powers of thought make those discoveries in science, which have given tenfold efficacy and value to labour, turned it suddenly into a thousand new channels, and conferred on all classes of society new conveniences and enjoyments? Are we to overlook those great intellects which have devoted themselves to statesmanship, to jurisprudence, to morals, to the science of medicine securing and advancing the best interests of mankind, and relieving them from physical anguish and misery: the genius devoted to literature, refining, expanding, and elevating the minds of all capable of it, and whose immortal works are glittering like stars of the first magnitude, in the hemisphere of thought and imagination? Let us be thankful to God for giving us men of such powers, and opportunity and inclination to exert them, not for their own reputations sake alone, but for our advantage; and let us never attempt to enhance the claims of manual, by forgetting or depreciating those of intellectual labour. Samuel Warren.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 137.
minister from minister, a servant, a helper. Those who teach religion are known by this general appellation, because they regard themselves as Gods special servants in doing good to the rest of his household the human family. They are ministers of the people their brethren according to the flesh by assisting them to understand the teaching of the prophets and apostles.
Gospel from God-spel (A.S.), compounded of God, good, and spell, message; good news, a term applied by way of distinction to the christian religion. The dispensation of Moses was a gospel to the Israelites, compared to the moral and intellectual darkness by which they were surrounded.
Study from studeo (Lat.), deduced from speudo (Gr.), to strive with force. Those who earnestly desire to understand the word of God learn the original languages in which the Old and New Testament manuscripts are found.
Holy scriptures from scribo, scriptum, to write; sacred writings, viz., the several books of the Old and New Testament, as published by royal authority. These books were written at various times, and under different circumstances, in countries where many customs unknown to us prevailed; hence a knowledge of the history of the world at the several periods in which these books appeared, of the state of society, of the false religions which prevailed, and of the phraseology employed, is necessary to an enlightened understanding of them. Those parts, however, which treat of moral duties are so plain that all thinking beings may understand them.
Parishioners from para (Gr.), near, and oikos (Or.), a house; the inhabitants of a territorial division - as a district of a city, hundred &c., who avail themselves of the ministerial service, of the parson appointed to it. The parson is either rector, vicar, or incumbent.
Congregations from con, together, and grex, gregis, a flock; as those who assemble in churches, episcopal chapels, in Wesleyan, Baptist, Independent, and other chapels.
understood, &c. it is necessary that we should practice as well as know religious, social, and political duties, as those who must give an account of themselves to God
schoolmasters the qualifications required of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, by the Council of Education, are such as will, in the course or a few years, effect a change for the better in all the parochial and other schools in the kingdom.
Physicians from physicus, an inquirer into nature; from phusis (Gr.), nature, or phusike (Gr.), the science of nature. They are, as medical practitioners, first in rank and legal pre-eminence.
Surgeons formerly written chirurgeon, from cheirourgos (Gr.), (compounded of cheir, hand, and ergon, work); one who attempts cures by manual operations and external applications.
Lawyers also styled attorneys, and solicitors. At the head of the former branch of the legal profession stands the attorney general, or the sovereigns attorney, whose duty it is to bring forward information and to conduct prosecutions against parties who, by political offences, cause danger to the State.
judges from judex , the same word. They declare the law in all matters tried before them, and preside over different courts of justice.
Barristers they represent and plead for the prisoner or defendant at the bar a railing which parts off one part of the court from the other.
Authors from augeo (Lat.), to increase, or enlarge; one who enlarges our knowledge or our means of social happiness by his inventions, is an author.
many years as, for example, the degree of B.A. requires four years successful study in college, as shown by the students examinations; a masters degree, seven years, and a doctors, ten years.
QUESTIONS 137.
Why is it that both mind and body require activity?
If either is not employed usefully, how must its activity turn?
Do you remember any simple verse which expresses this idea?
Is useful labour of some kind or other required of all people?
What is the result of this social requirement?
What are the specific duties of ministers?
What is the physicians office?
What is the duty of surgeons?
How do lawyers employ themselves?
Why do professional men sometimes become authors?
What benefit results from this circumstance?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How his the labour of the mind benefitted those who are commonly called the "working classes."?
Why is it unfair to restrict the term working classes to its usual application?
In what manner have all of us profited by intellectual labours?
How has the science of medicine blessed mankind?
What benefit does literature confer?
What primarily Is an inducement to men of talent to engage in intellectual labour?
What reason have we, who do not so labour, to thank God for giving to others the necessary ability and inclination?
What are the two departments of labour?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Lesson 138. Buildings of a Town.
Towns consist of a number of houses, shops, and warehouses built together, and forming streets, squares, courts, terraces, alleys, &c. Towns in which markets are periodically held are called market towns. Towns in which manufactories are carried on are called manufacturing towns; they are generally situated in the neighbourhood of coal, or other mines. Towns with harbours for ships are called sea-ports; there are many such towns on the coasts of Britain. Towns in which the inhabitants are governed by a local resident magistracy are called borough towns. Towns with a cathedral are generally called cities; some cities are also places of learning, of manufactures, or of commerce. The chief town or city of a country is called the metropolis. London, the metropolis of Great Britain, embraces the cities of London and Westminster, and the borough of Southwark. It has two cathedrals and a university, besides several palaces, the houses of Parliament, public offices, banks, prisons, asylums, workhouses, &c. Some towns have a peculiar character; Oxford and Cambridge are university towns, having colleges and halls of learning, and being empowered to grant degrees to men of learning and literature.
In all towns there are churches and chapels, in which the inhabitants are instructed in their religious duties; schools for the rich and for the poor, in which boys and girls receive instruction; Sunday schools, in which the young are taught the scriptures; market-places, in which the principal articles of food are offered for sale; libraries, from which books may be obtained; courts of justice for the trial of offenders; prisons for the confinement of criminals.
In some towns there are workhouses, in which the aged and infirm are fed and lodged, and orphan children taught; almshouses for the aged; infirmaries for the sick and diseased; and many other useful institutions.
The principal affairs of a borough town are managed by a town council. The principal magistrate is called the mayor. There are generally aldermen, chosen from the councillors, and magistrates, who also take a part in the government. Towns are guarded by police-officers.
RISE OF A MANUFACTURING TOWN.
Seventy years ago, a large town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, now the centre of a fancy manufacture, was a poor village; the houses were scattered, the streets narrow, crooked, and dirty, the people were ignorant and wild in their manners; around them were barren moorlands, adorned only with moss, brambles, gorse, and heather. But within the people were the seeds of a great manufacturing interest. During these seventy years heads and hands have been at work, conquering the dominion of nature and enforcing the elements to serve them. The river has been converted into artificial beds, the waters arrested in their course by weirs, and expelled to turn the wheels of the numerous factories which are built on the rivers banks. The wild moorland has been cultivated and parcelled out into corn fields and pastures. The tall chimneys of the factories is, each of them, the centre of a working community. Besides this, the town alluded to has fostered other towns and villages in its immediate neighbourhood, in addition to its 31,OOO 1nahitaa1s. Such has been the rapid rise of HUDDERSFIELD.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 138.
market-towns markets are generally held once, twice, or thrice a week, chiefly for the sale of provisions, according to royal charter, or from immemorial usage.
manufacturing towns as Birmingham and Sheffield, for cutlery and hardwares; Manchester, Bolton, Huddersfield, Norwich, and Paisley, for weaving; Nottingham, for lace, &c.
borough towns they are divided into municipal and parliamentary boroughs.
Cathedral from cathedra (Gr.), a seat. Cathedral churches are those in which there are thrones or seats of dignity for the bishop of the diocese in which they stand. Some of them are ancient edifices, and all have an architectural and historic interest, and a national value, which should render their preservation an object of public anxiety.
City - from cite (Fr.), an incorporated town, and the residence of a bishop. All large towns in America are called cities, though bishops have not, in that country, any legal territorial standing.
Learning as Oxford, Cambridge, London, Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, &c.
Metropolis from meter (Gr.), a mother, and polis (Gr.), a city; the mother city; as London, of Enwland; Dublin, of Ireland; Edinburgh, of Scotland; Paris, of France.
University from unus, one, and verto (Lat.), to turn: so called because the course of study is not limited to any one of the liberal arts, but extended to all, and for proficiency in which degrees are conferred. A university is governed by a chancellor, vice-chancellor, proctors, heads of colleges, &c. In Oxford there are 18 colleges, 5 halls, and several important public buildings. In Cambridge 14 colleges and 3 halls.
London the origin of this great city is unknown: it was a place of much importance before the Romans invaded this country.
Westminster containing the royal residence, the houses of parliament, the chief courts of law, and the principal offices of the government.
Southwark - a borough lying on the south of the Thames, and connected with London and Westminster by several bridges.
Churches from kuriakos (Gr.), of or belonging to the Lord, as the Lords house, (a building); or the Lords flock (a congregation; also the whole number of Christians). Of late years the increase of the population has led to the erection of numerous churches additional to the ancient parish churches.
Chapels "from capsella (diminutive of capsa), a small box in which the relics of martyrs were formerly kept. From the box the term may have been extended to the oratory or part of the church in which it was deposited." (Sullivan.) Many chapels have been erected beyond the boundaries of parish churches. The same designation is given to the places of worship belonging to the Roman Catholics and Dissenters, as well as to those attached to private mansions.
Schools from schole (Gr.), leisure, ease; a place where persons being at leisure from bodily labour and business attend to the improvement of their minds. The Greek writers in like manner use this word for the schools of the philosophers. Our schools are endowed grammar schools, national, British and foreign, industrial, reformatory, proprietary, private and schools for special purposes, as music, design amp;c., as well as for those labouring under deprivations, as the blind, and deaf and dumb.
town council this body executes all offices for the good government of a town; from their number the mayor is elected annually, and the aldermen appointed.
Mayor the chief magistrate in a town having a municipal corporation.
Police from polis (Gr.), a city; one of the duties of a town council is to provide the requisite number of policemen for the maintenance of peace and order in the town.
QUESTIONS 139.
What do you understand by market towns?
And what are manufacturing towns?
Where are they generally located?
What towns are known as ports?
Are there many such in Britain?
Why is this?
What are borough towns?
And what towns are called cities?
For what are some cities distinguished?
What do you mean by metropolis?
With what sort of public buildings are all towns provided?
Besides these, what other important public buildings are found in towns?
What are market-places for?
What are libraries? courts of justice? prisons? workhouses? infirmaries?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How long is it since Huddersfield was a poor village?
What is it now?
Describe the former appearance of the place
What kind of inhabitants dwelt there?
What sort of ground lay round about?
What has been developed in the people during these years?
What alteration has taken place in the river?
What service is extracted from it?
What transformation has taken place on the surrounding country?
How is each factory chimney a source of profit?
How has the energy of its inhabitants availed in its precincts?
What is its population?
What important lesson may we learn from this account of the rapid rise and progress of a town?
SECTION XVII. OF SOCIAL LIFE.
Towns require to be supplied with light, with water, and with pure air. To effect these important objects many artificial arrangements have been made.
Streets, which were formerly lighted with feeble oil lamps, are now better and more cheaply lighted with gas. The light which gas affords is beautiful and convenient for streets, shops, manufactories, public buildings, and dwellings. Light in the streets enables the inhabitants of towns to walk in safety in the evening, and protects property from thieves.
Gas is an inflammable air, obtainable from numerous substances, but most frequently produced from coal. To obtain the gas, coal is put into an iron vessel, called a retort, which is closed up tight, excepting at one end, where a pipe conveys away the fume that arises as the coal becomes heated. The fume thus produced is gas in an impure state, for it is mixed with tar, water, sulphur, and ammonia. These substances are separated from it in purifying vessels, and it is rendered fit for burning. The gas is then conveyed by pipes into large cylindrical storing vessels, called gasometers, which are inverted in water, to keep the gas from escaping into the atmosphere. During the process of gas-making a continual stream of gas passes from the retort through the purifying vessels, into the gasometer, which rises in the water as the gas enters it, till it is full. From this supply the gas is drawn off for burning through pipes, and as it is consumed the gasometer descends till it is empty. Gas is conveyed by pipes under ground to buildings and dwellings, where it is consumed; the supply to a building is turned off or on by a stop-cock, and measured by an instrument called a gas-meter.
Cheapness, cleanliness, and safety, are the principal advantages obtained by gas over every other mode of lighting. And although accidents have occasionally occurred from bringing a light into a place where a large quantity had escaped, yet the smell is so strong that injuries of this kind may commonly be avoided.
ILLUMINATING POWER AND IMPURITIES OF GAS.
Gas The use of gas is a direct gain of time, both for work and enjoyment.
the light, &c. The illuminating power of a gas-burner consuming live cubic feet per hour is equal to that of twelve wax candles, each consuming 120 grains per hour. The batwing burner of the street lamps gives as much light as eighteen wax candles. Gas costs about 4s. per 1,000 cubic feet, while wax candles cast 2s per lb.
purifying vessels Pure gas, composed of hydrogen and carbon, the one to supply heat, the other affording light, burns with a clear flame whose light more approach daylight than that of oil, tallow, or wax. The flame of impure gas is heavy whitish or blue at the bottom, and yields little light. The blueness is caused by sulphur, whose acid fumes destroy bindings of books and tarnish metallic surfaces, besides being poisonous to breathe. The dense whiteness shows the presence of ammonia.
These and other destructive impurities should be separated at the gasworks.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 139.
oil lamps from lampo (Gr.), to shine; whale-oil was chiefly used for this purpose.
Gas from geist (Ger.), a spirit. (as differs from vapour in that it retains its aeriform state at common temperatures; whereas vapour is reduced either to a liquid or solid state by the withdrawal of heat. The gas obtained by distillation for the purpose of light is a compound of hydrogen and carbon.
Inflammable from in, in, and flamma, a flame; capable of being set in a flame; mention is made of the inflammable nature of gas so long ago as 1690, by Dr. Clayton of Kildare, in a letter to the Hon. Robert Boyle; but no practical use was made of the knowledge of this fact.
numerous substances as from oil, wax, wood, &c. Gas from oil was at one time in favour, but though its light exceeds in brilliancy that of coal gas, it was found to be too costly for general use.
Coal Sir James Lowther, in 1733, gave an account of certain discoveries made in one of the Whitehaven collieries respecting the existence of inflammable gas. It was not till 1792 that any attempt was made to apply these discoveries to useful purposes, when Mr. Murdoch, of Redruth, in Cornwall, built a small gasometer sufficient to supply his own house and offices with gas-light. Boulton and Watts manufactory at Soho, near Birmingham, was lighted with gas in 1802; Pall Mall, in London, in 1807; and a few years subsequently the city of London and several large towns were thus lighted.
Retort from re, again, and tortus, twisted; because those vessels were generally bent: the retorts now used are cylindrical, or semi-cylindrical vessels. The fire in which the retorts are placed is raised to redness, which decomposes the coal within them, leaving a mass of coke.
a pipe this is a large pipe which receives the gas from one or more retorts, and transmits It, after making a sudden turn (retortus), into a much larger pipe, called the "great main."
Impure when the gas cools, the tar and water run off, and the sulphuretted hydrogen is removed by means of lime, for which it has an attraction, after which the gas passes through other purifying processes.
Fume the Latin inscription, "ex fumo lucem," on some of the gas-houses and lamps, means, "From smoke we make light."
Gasometer or gas-measurer; some gasometers are so capacious as to contain 100,000 cubic feet of gas; one, however, baa been recent;y made which is more than 500 feet in circumference.
conveyed from con, together, and veho, to carry; all these pipes should have an inclination to the main, and the main an inclination to the works, owing to the collection of a watery vapour which, when condensed in the pipes, causes an inconstant, flickering light in the burners.
Gas-meter this ingenious instrument was invented by Mr. Clegg, and improved by Mr. Crosby. It indicates the quantity of gas consumed in each establishment by an index-hand pointing on a dial-plate. The gas company's officer generally registers these indications four times a year.
Smell the smell of unburnt gas is therefore a positive advantage, as it warns of danger. The place of escape should be immediately ascertained, and the escape prevented.
QUESTIONS 139.
Enumerate some of the public conveniences of towns.
In what respects is the light of gas superior to that of oil?
What is the advantage of having streets illuminated?
What is gas?
Describe the process of making gas.
Describe the form and operation of gasometers.
What effect on the gasometer has the consumption of gas by the burners?
How is gas conveyed from the works to distant places?
By what contrivance is the gas let out?
What instrument tells the quantity consumed?
By whom was it invented, and by whom improved?
Name the principal recommendations of gas.
In what way do accidents with gas sometimes occur?
Show that the disagreeable smell of gas is rather an advantage than otherwise.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
What advantage is there in using gas?
What amount of light is yielded by a gas-burner whose consumption is five cubic feet per hour?
What comparative degree of light does the bat-wing of street lamps give?
What is the cost of gas per 1,000 cubic feet?
What quantity of wax candles would this sum purchase?
Of what constituents is pure gas composed?
What share do these constituents respectively contribute to the benefits we derive from gas?
What sort of flame does pure gas yield?
What appearance has the flame of impure gas?
What mischievous results follow the use of gas in which sulphur is present?
How is the presence of ammonia visible?
What ought to be done before the gas leaves the gas works?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Water is one of the essentials of life, as it serves to assuage thirst, and to promote cleanliness.
Man could not exist without water, nor could he occupy himself in many useful arts without its aid; the deprivation of water would be one of the greatest calamities that could befal us. A deficiency of water is often the cause, not only of inconvenience, but of direct evils; it stops inland communication by canals and rivers, and brings on pestilences, by causing an accumulation of impurities. Many buildings and even whole cities, have been devoured by fire, which a timely and copious supply of water would have saved. The traveller in the desert, and the voyager by sea, who have felt the deprivation, can appreciate the blessing of water.
In former times large bridges, called aqueducts, were constructed to convey water into towns, and many such buildings still remain in various parts of the world. But it was found that water rises to its own level, whatever the distance from that level; even if it had to descend valleys and ascend mountains, provided they were lower than the source of the supply. On this principle water is now conveyed great distances to large cities and towns without the cost of aqueducts. Reservoirs are formed in elevated situations, from which a main pipe issues; other large pipes, attached to this, conduct the water to the chief divisions of the town; and branches are laid to the streets, from which there are smaller branches to the courts and alleys. A leaden pipe rises into a house, from which there are branches to the separate apartments; other pipes lead to drains and sewers, and carry away the water with all its impurities; it is conveyed to rivers, and by them into the ocean, and is thus purified by continual running, and depositing its impurities.
WATER, ITS EFFECTS ON PLANTS ANIMALS HEALTH.
essentials of life - No liquid could sustain the part of water in supporting vegetable and animal life. Seeds, leaves, branches, roots, flowers and fruits alike are indebted to it. It forms almost wholly the sap of trees, and a plant gains solid matter in proportion to the quantity of water which passes through it. The gastric juice in animals, which is the solvent of the various articles of food they use, consists chiefly of water. As the fluid portion of the blood, it conveys to every part of the body the materials for its growth and activity. So largely does water enter into the composition of the human frame, that, chemically speaking, a man is 45 lbs. of carbon and nitrogen diffused through 5 and a half pailfuls of water.
In another respect water is essential to life and health. An eminent medical man in the metropolis visited Windmill Court, Rosemary Lane, twice or thrice daily during seven months, for cases of fever. In that time there were forty-one cases. On causing the court to be sewered, supplied with water, and washed thrice a week, the fever all but disappeared, there being only two cases in the five months following.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 140.
Water - once supposed to be a simple element, is known now to be a combination of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas in such proportions as to result in a liquid state. Water is colourless, inodorous, and transparent. It is obtained from different sources, whence its names, as rain-water (considered the purest), dew, spring-water, river-water, sea-water, &c. There are also hot-water springs, and mineral springs, which are saline, aperient, alkaline, chalybeate, sulphureous, &c.
Thirst (Lesson 20.) As moisture is required for the continual repair of the tissues of the body, so will thirst be felt, generally speaking, in proportion to the internal diminution of water.
Cleanliness its importance for the purposes of health, comfort, and morality, is not yet sufficiently appreciated; but much is being done to disseminate information concerning the advantages of this virtue, and to create facilities for practising it, when the desire has been formed. Many of the Jewish ceremonies were evidently intended to promote this necessary duty, as well as to intimate symbolically the importance of internal purity.
without water water is found in considerable quantities even in bone, more abundantly in cartilage, muscle, fat, and blood; about 84 per cent. of the animal frame is water; and as this is being constantly given out from the system in breath, perspiration, &c., it requires constantly to be replaced; hence the necessity there is for our having free access to water.
devoured by fire to meet the exigencies of fires in cities, fire-engines, fire-ladders, and fire-escapes are provided; and a body of men, called a fire- brigade, is always in readiness to bring them out on the cry of fire. At the same time water only acts mechanically on fire, by forming a coating over the fuel, which keeps it from the air. Its conversion into steam carries off the heat. An apparatus called a fire-annihilator acts by directing a current of some gaseous matter, which does not support combustion, on the fire.
Traveller it is one of the thirty-two charities of the Hindoos to have water ready for the traveller to drink. On the public roads, in front of the houses of the charitable, vessels are placed filled with water for the use of all who pass that way.
Aqueducts from aqua, water, and duco, ductum, to lead; hence an aqueduct is a conduit, or conductor of water. Remains of ancient aqueducts are to be found In most of the principal cities of Asia and Africa. Rome, in the time of Nerva, was supplied with water brought from distances of from 30 to 60 miles by nine aqueducts, which discharged themselves into the city through 13,594 pipes of an inch In diameter.
water rises the science of hydrostatics treats of the pressure, equilibrium, gravitation, and motions of water, and all liquid bodies. Hydrodynamics teaches the laws by which the force of water in motion acts on other bodies. The branch of hydrodynamics called hydraulics treats of the conveyance of water through pipes, ducts, or other channels. The syphon, pump, and fire-engine come under this branch of the subject.
drains and sewers the sewers of London are about 48 miles long; yet they are insufficient for the necessities of that great city.
QUESTIONS 140.
Name one of the essentials of life.
What are its two main excellencies?
What would be stopped if there were no water?
Would the want of water be a serious evil?
Name some of the evils which a deprivation of water would occasion.
What are aqueducts?
Were they known in former times?
Are there any now in existence?
What discovery has resulted in a different arrangement for the supply of water?
Is this principle now generally adopted?
Describe the contrivances by which water is thus conveyed to all the houses of a town.
What are the several offices of the smaller pipes which run through a house?
How is the refuse of a city removed?
To what place Is it finally carried?
Is it purified in the sea?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT N0TES.
What liquid could be, in all respects, a substitute for water?
How are the leaves of plants indebted to it?
What effect does it produce on the flower and fruit?
In what proportion do plants gain solid matter?
In what necessary secretion of the stomach is it a necessary part?
What other important fluid in the body derives from water its fitness to perform its offices?
What offices does this fluid discharge?
What description of man shows the large amount of water which enters into his composition?
In what other manner is water essential to life?
What was the condition of Windmill Court, in London, before being supplied with water?
How was a change for the better brought about?
SECTION XVII. OF SOCIAL LIFE.
Fire is the most convenient and useful artificial source of heat and light that we know. With little trouble, and at moderate expense, it dissipates the moisture and cold from our dwellings, and gives light to our apartments. It either glows in our grates, or beams from our lamps, or roars in our furnaces as we require it. It cooks our food, boils our kettle, reduces the rough ore to a molten fluid, evaporates liquids, expands water into steam, and thus, by the machinery of the steam-engine, urges forward the rapid car, the loaded van, or the vast ship.
In its terrors fire is seen spreading from building to building, till cities become ruins; and in the volcano it sends forth flame and red hot ashes or lava, entombing villages and their inhabitants; again, in the thunderbolt, it rives the forest-tree in a moment, or levels an edifice which man has toiled years to erect. In its mercy fire warns the mariner of the sunken rock, and the precipitous coast, by the beacon-light; it lights the traveller on his way, and protects dwellings from the midnight burglar.
Fuel is the food of fire; in earlier times wood was the chief fuel used by man. But since coal mines have been known, coal is the most general fuel, though wood is still used in countries where there are no coal mines. In sonic countries a kind of vegetable earth, called peat, is dug out of bogs, which is used as fuel for all domestic purses. Oils, fat, wax, bitumen, sulphur, tar, naphtha, resin, turpentine, are materials that readily feed the flames of fire.
Fuel and air are necessary to produce combustion,. Carbon, the solid part of all fuel, abounds in animal substances and in minerals. When fuel is lighted the flame heats the carbon it contains, and the oxygen of the air which surrounds the fuel produces combustion.
PROCESS OP COMBUSTION.
When coal or wood burns in the open air it exemplifies the familiar action called combustion; which chemists describe as the union of a combustible body with a supporter of combustion, accompanied with heat and light or fire.
The combustible body is that which burns, but will neither support combustion, nor burn, except in presence of a supporter of combustion. The supporter, again, though necessary to the burning of a combustible, will itself, under no circumstances, burn. Let a lighted candle be plunged into pure oxygen gas, the candle burns vividly, because the gas is an excellent supporter, but the gas is not ignited. As an example of the converse, let a taper be plunged into carburetted hydrogen gas, and it will be found that the gas is instantly kindled, while the taper is extinguished. Hydrogen combined with oxygen produces as intense a flame as human art can excite. The illumination of the oxyhydrogen microscope is produced by burning a small piece of lime in a stream of oxyhydrogen gas.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 141.
Fire cannot be satisfactorily defined; but we all know what it is by its appearance and effects. Its origin and substance are alike subjects of dispute.
Convenient from con, together, and venio (Lat), to come; coming together with the same design; concurring, agreeing.
Source probably from surgo (Lat.), to rise; that from which anything rises or springs; the origin or beginning.
Dissipates from dissipo, dissipare, to scatter, to drive away.
Moisture by absorption.
Cold by the infusion of caloric or heat into the mass of cold air.
Light a medium by which our sight is enabled to apprehend objects.
glows, &c. fires in our rooms should be of moderate size. In England the stoves are open; in Germany shut up, excluding the light of the fire.
Lamp the gas lamp, the naphtha lamp, the Drummond lamp, the oil lamp, and so on.
Roars because a furnace is so contrived as to cause a draught, the fire therefore burns with great vehemence.
Cooks the ability in man to produce fire, and prepare food by it, shows that he has a mental and a mechanical superiority above all other creatures. Food in a raw state, though suitable for the lower animals, is generally rejected by man.
Evaporates from e, out of, and vapor, steam; to emit steam; as may be observed in the diminution of water by boiling; its contents passing off in steam.
Expands this is the simple result of confining steam (or evaporated water) within a vessel. That which would have diminished, as boiling water in open space, becomes expansive, when retained within a boiler.
Steam-engine engine from ingenium (Lat.), capacity, ingenuity; applied to any machine or instrument ingeniously worked or contrived.
Terrors witness the fire of London in 1666, when three-fourths of the city were consumed (see Notes to Lesson 120). But there never was a more fortunate calamity; for since that period epidemics have ceased, and London has never suffered from any general disease, except two visitations of cholera in the present century. Wider streets, better drainage, and better dwellings, have contributed to this exemption from disease.
Volcano from Vulcan, in mythology, the supposed god of fire; witness the destruction which has several times descended upon the inhabitants, houses, and cultivated lands of Campania, In Naples. Two cities were overwhelmed in A.D. 79, viz., Herculaneum, and Pompeii.
thunder occurs frequently with terrible power under the tropics; it declines in frequency and strength towards the poles. The cause of thunder is still an unsettled question.
beacon-light from beakn (AS.), a signal. In all ages beacon fires have been lit with the greatest expedition in time of alarm. In the time of Edward III, pitch boxes were substituted for beacon fires; and in the reign of Elizabeth, the Corporation of Trinity House, Deptford, was instituted for erecting sea-marks, beacons, &c. In various places on the English coast the remains of beacon-hills may still be seen. Lighthouses and floating lights are the present night beacons on our coast.
QUESTIONS 141.
Why is fire useful?
Row does it act on us and on our dwellings?
What does it supply besides warmth?
Mention some of the uses of fire in domestic life.
Mention some or its uses in the arts.
How does fire aid us in travelling?
When are the terrors of fire manifested?
What destruction was caused by the fire of London in 1666?
What good results followed this calamity? What cities were destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius?
What benefit does the mariner receive from fire?
What is the chief fuel of this country?
What other fuels are used?
What other materials increase the flames of fire?
What two things are necessary in order that combustion may take place?
How is combustion produced?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT N0TES.
Under what familiar circumstances is the act of combustion exemplified?
Describe technically the chemical process of combustion.
What visible token manifests that combustion is going on?
What is a combustible body?
Whet is meant by a supporter of combustion?
When a lighted candle is plunged in oxygen gas, what happens to the candle?
Why does this result take place?
For what reason does the gas itself remain unacted on?
What would have happened had carburetted hydrogen been used instead of oxygen?
What parts do these two gases respectively take in assisting combustion?
How do we produce the most intense fire known?
CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE. GRADATION III.
Pure air is one of the chief necessaries for preserving the body in a state of health; unchanged air is poisonous to the animal system; want of air produces suffocation. A constant supply of good air is required in every apartment of a house; this is of still greater importance in schools, churches, and rooms where large numbers of people are assembled. Heated air always ascends, there should therefore be apertures for the escape of impure heated air, in or near the ceilings of rooms, and apertures round the skirting of rooms, to allow a gentle current of cold air to enter, which helps to force the hot air upwards.
The atmosphere is formed of two kinds of air which are essential to animal existence. The more important of these is oxygen. Oxygen gas is the chief support of life and of light. As we breathe in a confined atmosphere we consume all the oxygen it contains, it is therefore no longer capable of sustaining animal life. In towns the atmosphere becomes noisome from putrid exhalations, bad drainage, uncovered sewers, and stagnant gutters. The noxious vapours with which the air is filled are breathed over and over again, and the inhabitants become enfeebled with the poison, so that fevers and deaths ensue, especially in courts and alleys, where the air is confined by high buildings.
The combustion of oxygen by burning lights in a room is very rapid, the only remedy for this is a constant supply of fresh air by ventilation. Those people who are obliged to breathe impure air are almost always short-lived. The vapours of metals are always noxious, especially those of lead and quicksilver; if drawn into the lungs they produce languor, depression of spirits, paleness, and emaciation.
VENTILATION EVILS OF A POLLUTED ATMOSPHERE.
Putrid exhalations It has been calculated that the process of evaporation raises daily in the summer from the Thames four million gallons, or about 18,000 tons of water; thus the atmosphere breathed by the inhabitants of London is polluted.
bad drainage The drainage of towns is placed under the control of commissioners of sewers, latterly under boards of health; and the highway laws provide for the cleansing of public roads and ditches. The stopping of wholesome air is held to be a nuisance, as well as the stopping of light. Persons with infectious diseases who go abroad and expose others to the infection are liable to punishment.
Ventilation The ventilation of ordinary dwellings is as much the province of every head of a family, to provide for the welfare of his family in this respect, as the supply of food. The mephitic gases from the lungs, breathed into the close atmosphere of rooms, are aerial poisons, which become absorbed in the human system and produce disease if they are not driven out of the rooms by ventilation.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 142.
Pure air - yet respiration can only be supplied by one of its components viz., oxygen. Pure air is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, with a very small proportion of carbonic acid.
Poisonous the smoke of flame has also not unfrequently caused death. In health, the lungs of an ordinary sized person contain about 12 pints of air.
Suffocation this may be accounted for thus: the lungs of a full-grown and healthy individual require no fewer than 20 inches of atmospheric air at every inhalation; any quantity short of this causes a sense of oppression, and is followed by a diminution of respiratory action, the total cessation of which would be the cessation of life.
Apartment independently of the open fire-places which, to a certain extent, act as ventilators, every room of a house ought to have other means for the admission and escape of air.
schools, churches, &c. because the vitiation of the sir takes place in proportion to the number of individuals present, the size of the room and the amount of ventilation being considered.
Ascends from a, up or to, and scando (Lat.), to climb. Heated air is rarefied air, and therefore, being lighter than the air above it, it seeks a higher position, the attraction of gravity always acting in drawing the denser body of air nearer to the earth; hence the upper galleries In churches, and crowded rooms, produce lassitude, headaches, and thirst.
Apertures from aperturta, a little open passage, and this from aperio, apertum, to open; openings.
Oxygen that which produces acid, from oxus (Gr.), acid or rust, and gen, from
ginomai (Gr.), to cause or produce. This elementary body was first discovered by Dr. Priestley of Birmingham, in 1774. Oxygen is destitute of colour, taste, and smell.
support of life - hence it has been called vital air. It will support life, it is said, longer than common air.
Of light -yet light has no effect upon it. Ignited bodies burn with great splendour in a volume of this gas; and many substances, which are not combustible in common air, ignite In oxygen.
Consume from con, together, and sumo, to take; at every inhalation the oxygen is extracted by the lungs, and absorbed in the system, while at every expiration a quantity of carbonic acid gas Is thrown off. The consequence of inhaling corrupt air was exemplified at Calcutta, where, out of 140 persons confined in the Black Hole one night, 117 died, and some of the remaining 23 died soon after.
Towns bad as is the sanitary condition of many of our towns, they are much more healthy than those of the continent of Europe, many of those of America, and all of Asia.
Putrid from putho (Gr.), to rot. Only for the dogs of Africa and the East, and the condor of America, which perform the office of scavengers, many districts would never be without the pestilence which walketh in darkness.
Drainage swampy districts experience the same evil the retention of impure water, causing miasma, which produces agues, fevers, &c.
Noxious from noxius, hurtful, deduced from noceo, to hurt or injure; injurious to health.
combustion from comburo, combustum, to burn with.
Ventilation from ventilo, ventilare, to blow or fan, deduced from ventus (Lat.), wind.
QUESTIONS 142.
How far Is pure air important to health?
What sort of air is poisonous?
What does want of air produce?
Then a constant supply of air is requisite in all dwellings?
In what buildings is it the most necessary?
In what state does air ascend?
What provision should be made for its escape?
How is cold air to be admitted?
What effect has this on the air of an apartment?
What is the composition of air?
Which is the more Important of these elements?
Of what is it the chief support?
What is the effect of breathing in a confined atmosphere?
Is the air of towns different to that of the open country?
How Is It rendered impure?
What are the results of this impurity?
Has the burning of lights any effect on the air of a room?
How is it to be remedied?
What classes are generally short-lived?
Name some occupations which are injurious to health.
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
How does waste take place from the surface of exposed water?
What is the daily loss of water, during summer, from the river Thames?
What kind of exhalations are to be expected from a tidal river whose bed is an open sewer?
Whose business is it to see that towns are drained?
What provision is made for the cleansing of roads and ditches?
Under what plea are persons with infectious diseases punishable for going about?
Who ought to attend to the ventilation in a dwelling house?
With what other department of duty may this, of attending to ventilation, be classed in importance?
When many persons breathe in a close room, what happens to the air in It?
What hurtful consequences result from this alteration?
How are such consequences to be guarded against?
SECTION XVII. OF SOCIAL LIFE.
Lesson 143. Roads and Railways.
Roads are the tracks laid out from one place to another for the convenience of travelling. In former times travellers and merchandise were carried from place to place by horses; waggons were afterwards used, then coaches, for speed; and channels of water, called canals, were formed for the conveyance of heavy goods by boats. Not many years ago the making of common roads for coaches, waggons, and carts, was very much improved, and the speed of travelling was greatly increased.
Recently railways have been formed between most of the large towns in Britain. The rails are laid in parallel lines, the width of the carriage wheels apart. The road is made as level as possible, to accomplish which, mountains are cut down, or tunnels formed through them, and valleys are raised; immense bridges are erected over rivers, and viaducts over narrow valleys. The rails rest on cast-iron sockets, called chairs, which are attached to solid blocks of granite, or to parallel beams of wood. Horses could drag heavy loads on such roads as these at a much greater speed than on common roads, but horses are not employed. Fire and water are the agents of motion. Water is heated, and changed into steam, which being confined, works a piston upon the axle of the wheels, and sets in motion the machine, the power of which is so great that it drags a number of heavily laden carriages behind it, or pushes them forward at a rapid rate. This machine is called a locomotive engine; it generally travels at the rate of twenty-five or thirty miles an hour; and in express trains reaches as many as sixty miles an hour, or a mile a minute.
Steamboats were in common use as a rapid water conveyance before railways were brought to such perfection as to supersede common roads. They have been long used on rivers, and on the coasts of many countries; ocean-steamers also regularly cross the Atlantic between Europe and America.
INLAND COMMUNICATION.
Methods of inland communication, whether by highways, railways, rivers, or canals, were devised to meet the requirements of commerce, Without roads a people are limited to their own productions of soil and labour, which they possess no means of exchanging. In most countries the State charges itself to make and maintain a suitable system of roads, but the English legislature assigns the task to private companies, who undertake it for their own profit, under conditions which ensure the public good. In proportion as facilities for traffic increase they are taken advantage of; mineral wealth finds a market, and much industry is awakened which otherwise would have slept. The fish trade, and the inland coal traffic, have been greatly promoted by railways. The railways in England employ 130,000 men, and represent a value of £300,000,000, which yields £20,000,000 a year. They enrich capitalists by benefiting all. The three kinds of traffic on railways from which profits are derived, are merchandise, minerals, and passengers.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 143.
Waggons these vehicles were very early in use; and to the present day large waggons are much used for the carriage of goods from London and other places, on roads which are distant from canals and railways. One-horse carts were introduced about 1780.
Coaches were brought into use at the beginning of the 16th century, but not much used till a century later. The first English sovereign who had a state carriage was the unfortunate Charles I. The first mail-coach between London and Edinburgh was started in 1785.
Speed the journey from London to Birmingham occupied nearly three days; from London to Oxford two days; and communications between London and Edinburgh required a fortnight to be answered.
Canals from canalis, a channel or pipe where water runs. Canals were unknown in modern Europe till the 11th or 12th century, when they were formed in Lombardy and Holland. The first canal cut in England was one of
eleven miles long in Lancashire; the second, called the Bridgewater Canal, was commenced before the other was completed. James Brindley, the engineer of the Duke of Bridgewater, brought this mode of communication to great perfection.
Conveyance from con, together, and veho (Lat.), to carry, a means of carrying from place to place.
roads ... improved particularly by Mr. J. L. McAdam, who introduced the principle in road-making, which bears his mane, in 1815.
speed ... increaaed speed, from sponde (Gr.), haste, deduced from speudo, to hasten. For some years before railways became common, many of the stagecoaches travelled regularly at the rate of ten miles an hour, including stoppages for the change of horses, &c.
railways - first introduced at the collieries of the north of England under the name of tramways. The rails were at first of wood; In 1767,iron plates were laid on the wooden rails at the Coalbrook-dale Iron works; In 1776, cast iron rails were introduced at a colliery belonging to the Duke of Newcastle near, Sheffield. The first edge-railway was laid down at Lord Penrhyn's slate quarry, at Penrhyn, in 1801. Many improvements were made previous to 1825.
Horses on all the earlier railways animal power was the only means of locomotion. On common roads a horse can draw on an average a ton; on a railway it will draw ten tons.
fire and water the first effort to substitute steam for animal power was made In 1802, by Trevithick and Vivian, who were followed by Blinkinsop, Brunton, Chapman, Gordon, Gurney, and many others. In 1825, that great work of art, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, was commenced, and was opened September 15, 1830.
Locomotive from locus, a place, and moveo, motum, to move; an ordinary engine is of about 150 horsepower, and a large one. about 400 horse-power. A locomotive engine draws from 100 to 150 tons.
steam-boats the first successful effort at steam-navigation was made by Fulton on the river Hudson, between New York and Albany, in America, in 1807. In 1812 steam navigation was introduced on the river Clyde by Mr. Henry Bell.
ocean-steamers it was long predicted that steamers could not cross the Atlantic even to America: they now ply regularly more than five times that distance, viz., to Australia and the East Indies.
QUESTIONs 143.
What are roads?
Bow was merchandise formerly conveyed from place to place?
What mode of transport succeeded to pack- horses?
And what followed these?
What are canals?
Which was the first made in England?
Who improved the system of road making In England?
What are the present general modes of travelling?
Which was the first public railway In England?
Describe the general construction of a railway.
When were horses employed with advantage on a railway?
Are they employed on our improved railways?
What, then, are the agents of motion on present railways?
How are the carriages propelled?
What are these steam engines called?
What is their average rate of travelling?
At what rate do express trains sometimes travel?
Where are steam-ships employed?
QUESTIONS ON FOOT NOTES.
Mention various methods of inland communication.
For what primary purpose were these devised?
In what conditions, as to commerce, would the absence of roads place a people?
What position does the English legislature take in road-making?
How does England differ in this respect from states generally?
What law holds good with regard to traffic on roads through districts which produce mineral wealth?
Give two examples of this?
How many men in England are directly employed on railways?
Allowing each man to represent a fami1y of four persons, how many human beings derive support from railway.?
What sum total of value do English railways represent?
What yearly percentage do they yield?
How do railways benefit persons who hive no stake in them?
SECTION XVIII OF GOVERNMENT.
Lesson 144. The British Nation.
The people who live in a country under one government form a nation. The people of England, Scotland, and Ireland live under one government, and form the British nation. There are many other countries which belong to the British empire, and which are governed by its laws. Some of these are called colonies, others are dependencies of the British Crown.
The British government is a monarchy, its chief ruler is the sovereign. A body of men who are persons of rank, and are called princes, dukes, earls, lords, &c. and another body of men, chosen as representatives by the people, called the commons, assist in making and amending the laws of the kingdom. These two assemblies are called the British Parliament. The acts of parliament must be assented to, or confirmed by the sovereign, before they become laws.
The foreign possessions of Great Britain in Europe are Heligoland, in the German Ocean; Gibraltar, at the entrance to the Mediterranean; and Malta, in the Mediterranean :
In Asia, the greater part of Hindostan; Aracan, formerly a part of the Burmese Empire; Ceylon; Malacca; Prince of Wales Island; Singapore and Hong Kong lately ceded to Britain by the Chinese; in Australia, nearly all the immense island of New Holland; Tasmania; and New Zealand :
In Africa, the colony of the Cape of Good Hope; Sierra Leone; Gambia; and several other settlements, and the islands of Fernando Po, St. Helena, Ascension, and the Mauritius :
In North America, Labrador; the countries round Hudsons Bay; Canada; New Brunswick; Nova Scotia; Newfoundland; Prince Edwards Island; Cape Breton; the Bermudas, Balize, and other settlements in the Bay of Honduras :
In South America, Demerara; Essequibo, and Berbice, in Guiana; and the Falkland Islands :
In the West Indies, Britain possesses Jamaica; the Bahama Islands; Barbadoes; Trinidad; and several other islands.
THE BRITISH NATION - RACES OF MEN UNDER BRITISH RULE.
Our empire has an extraordinary territorial sway, but the variety of the races it governs is a still greater marvel. Descendants of the ancient Britons, the Saxons, the Danes, the Normana, the Flemings, together with the Irish, the Scotch, and immigrants from every soil under the sun, make up our home population of 28,000,000. In Great Britain and Ireland alone we have four races; 1, the English , a mixed race; 2, the Welsh; 3, the Northern Celts, in the Highlands of Scotland 4, the Southern Celts, in the west of Ireland, descendants of those who colonized the Spanish peninsula. Our kindred in Canada are settled among the red-skinned people of the west; those of the West Indies, with the Negroes. The Eskimaux in the north, the Malays in Borneo and the Pacific the aborigines of Australia and New Zealand, and 150,000,000 of India, are all dependents on Britain. Spaniards, Greeks, and Maltese, acknowledge British rule in the Mediterranean, and at the Cape there is a medley of Britons, Dutchmen, Boers, Earthmen, Hottentots and Kaffirs. Thus our empire extends over one-fifth of the inhabitants of the earth.
EXPLANATIONS AND QUESTIONS.
LESSON 144.
Nation from natio, a people, deduced from nascor, to be born; hence native.
British nation the people of England are generally of Saxonorigin; those of Wales are descendants of the ancient Britons; of Scotland, one part at least is the offspring of a Scythian colony, which emigrated from Ireland. Ireland was chiefly inhabited by branches or tribes of the great Celtic nation.
one government from guberno, to direct; the laws are not yet perfectly assimilated; nor is the internal trade of the nation yet wholly free from anomalous and impolitic restrictions.
Colonies from colonus, a farmer, a husbandman, from colo, to cultivate; oountries first settled and cultivated by immigrants from the mother country, and subsequently held by their descendants under the rule of the parent state.
Dependencies from dependens, present participle of dependeo, to hang from; countries acquired either by treaty or conquest, and which depend on the fostering care of the home government.
Monarchy a form of government which recognises one sovereign head, from monarchia (Gr.), the one man systen; compounded of monos (Gr.), alone, and archos (Cr.), chief
Princes from princeps, principis, a chief. In England this title is restricted to members of the royal family.
Dukes - remotely from dux, a military commander, and more immediately from duc (Fr.), of the same import; the highest rank of nobility in England.
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