Antient Times corrupt-A mutable Language and People. 171 "thexercise of a knyghte? that is to 66 hym not. And thenne at laste ano"ther sayd, that he wolde have eyren; "thenne the good wyf sayd, that she "understode him well. Loo what "sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges or eyren? To a curious perfon Mr Ames's book is certainly a great treasure; for, befides the mutability of our language, may alfo be remarked the changeableBnefs of the ordinary forms of contract, which feem infenfibly to have varied ac.cording to the modes of fpeech.-The form of matrimony is a remarkable inftance of this: in 1502 a book was printed by Henry Pepwell with this form: "I N. underfynge pe N. for my "wedded wyf, for beter, for worse, C" for richer, for porer, yn seknes, and yn helpe, tyl dep us departe, as holy "churche hap ordeyned, and perto y ply th pe my trovvpe. Et iterum ac"cipiat eam per manum dextram in manu fua dextra, et ipfa dicat sacerdote docente, "I N. underfynge je N. for my " Wedded housbunde, for beter, for vvorse, for richer, for porer, yn sekenes, and yn helpe, to be boxum to pe tyl dep us depart, as holy churche "hap ordeyned, and perto y plygth ye my trovvpe. Vel dicat in materna lingua boc modo sacerdote docente, Wyp pys ryng y pe vvede, and pys gold and seluer ych pe geue, and vvyp myne body ych pe honoure. From these paffages this inference may be drawn, that how corrupt foever the age in which we live may be thought by the prefent generation, thofe who fucceed us will think that wherein they live worfe; and yet, perhaps, neither the one nor the other may be lefs virtuous than the moft renowned ages of antiquity. It has been the mode of all times to reprefent the world as growing ftill more wicked, and yet, if we do but compare the hiftory of former ages with our own, we fhall find no just reafon to join in the common cry of degeneracy. But this by the bye; our main intent is to give the reader, from the fame author, fome obfervable proofs "of the fluctuating fituation of the **English language, in the writing of D which Caxton complains fome gentlemen blamed him for ufing over cu"ryous termés, which coude not be "understande of comyn peple," and ** defired him to ufe olde and homely 66 66 66 cr 66 .6 In 1554 the form is thus printed by 7. Wayland: "I N. take the N. to 66 termes; "and tayn, fays he, wolde "I satisfye every man. And so to doo E" "toke an olde boke and redde therein, " and certaynly the Englisshe was so "rude and brood, that I coude not "wele understande it. And certaynly "our langage now used varyeth ferre "from that which was used and spo"ken whan I was born; for we Eng❝lissh men ben borne under the domy- F 66 nacyon of the mone, which is never "stedfaste, but ever wauerynge, wex 64 yng one season, and waneth and dys"creaseth another season; and that Comyne Englisshe that is spoken in the shyre varyeth from another, in"fomuche, that in my dayes happened, "that certayn merchauntes were in a shipp in Tamyse, for to have sailed over the see into Zelande, and for "lacke of wynde they taryed atte For"land, and went to lande for to re"freshe them; and one of them, na"med Sheffelde, a mercer, came into "an hows, and axed for mete, and specyally he axed for egges, and the goode wyf answerde, that she coude Ipeke no Frenshe. And the mar. "chaunt was angry, for he alfo coude "fpeke no Frenshe, but wolde have "hadde egges and she understode G my wedded wife, to have and to "holde, fro this day forwarde, for bet<< ter, for wors, for richer, for poorer, "in sikenesse and in hele, til dethe vs 66 66 departe, if holy church it woll or"deine, and thereto I plight the my "trouthe.-1 N. take the N to my "wedded housbande, to have and to "holde fro this day forwarde, for hetter, for worse, for richer, for poorer, "in sikenesse and in hele; to be bonere and buxum in bedde, and at the "borde, till dethe vs departe, if holy "church it woll ordeine, and thereto I "plight the my trouthe. 172 Cafe of an Hemorrhage from the Umbilicus. and a pair of fhears in his other hand, "I am an Englishman, and naked I stand "were that, Now I wyll were, I cannot tell what.e." Another fpecimen of the fatirical humour of those ruder times, Mr Ames has given from a little book printed by Wyer in 1542, named the Schole bowse, in which is a border of naked women, and among other ftanzas the B following: Trewly some men there be That lyue alwayes in great horroure, " Whoever defires to see more of thefe literary anecdotes will be fufficiently gratified by confulting the original work. SIR,' WIT ITH great pleasure I perufed your propofals to establish a medical correfpondence in your Magazine, and if the following cafe and curfory remarks on it be agreeable to your de fign, I beg the favour of you to infert it. correfpondent vein, generally speaking, become impervious in a few days after birth; nay, fome have proceeded fo far as to affert, (probably from obferving that the young of brutes, whofe funes umbilicales the dams bite afunder, felfrom the umbilicus) that the funis umbilidom or never die by an hæmorrhage calis humanus needs no ligature; the contrary of which has been fufficiently demonftrated by the many untimely deaths of infants whofe funes umbilicales have been either through neglect not tied fufficiently ftrait, or through ignorance not tied at all. The hemorrhage in the cafe abovementioned (a relation of which I had from the father's own mouth) as indeed in the others, which have been related to me by nurses, to puerpere, feems to have proceeded from the vena umbilicalis, and in no wife from the arteries, for the blood drilled in an equable uniform ftream down the belly. 'Tis true, the blood must have flowed in a course contrary to the natural one before birth, and as this vein has no valves, but allows a free paffage to the coloured matter used in anatomical injections from the child to the placenta, Dan hæmorrhage from it (fuppofing its external orifice remain præternaturally open) is in no wife extraordinary; nay, if we confider the following circumftances with regard to the vein, we shall find it much more difpofed to pour out a large quantity of blood, than the arteries feem to be. C First, the lumen, or area of the tranfverfe fection of the vena umbilicalis is very large in proportion to the conjunct areas of the two arteries, the ratio of the first of which to those of the two laft M. Haller makes as 900 to 392; its coats likewife are very lax, and confequently on both thefe accounts it must make lefs refiftance to the impetus of the blood. zdly, This vein arifes from, or rather, confidering its ufe in a foetus, is inferted immediately into the finus of the vena portarum, and by means of the ductus venojus has a free and open com Sometime ago an infant in this place, whole funis umbilicalis came off in the ordinary way on the feventh day after birth, was feized, on the fourth day fol lowing, with an hæmorrhage from the ambilicus, which, notwithstanding the application of various ftyptics, with comprefs and bandage on the part, con:inued to recur by intervals in fo violent a manner, that the poor babe expired. within fix and thirty hours from the beginning of its bleeding. By enquiry, I find that feveral inftances of this fort have happened in this country within thete few years, in the fatal hæmorrnage has proceeded from the umbilicus after the natural feparation of the funis;munication with the vena cava, from or can forbear wondering that the great Dr Smellie, who has made fuch grand improvements, and had fo long and extenfive a practice in the obstetric art, mentioned nothing of this particuJar either in his private lectures, or in that incomparable treatise which he has lately published on midwifry. 'Tis the general opinion, confirmed by the experience of many good anatomifts, that the arteriæ umbilicales, with their both, or even any one of which veins it may be immediately fupplied with a large quantity of blood. The vena portarum is confidered generally in the light of an artery, (which, with regard to its ufe in the liver, it certainly is) but fome have proceeded fo far as to attriHbute to it a pulfation, (or fyftole and di aftole) fomewhat analogous to that of the heart. How far this is true, I don't pretend to determine; but that the effort, whatever Ligature preferable in Hemorrhages-Strange Relation. 173 B a continual fucceffion of the acts of inspiration and expiration; without thele the blood cannot pafs from the right ventricle of the heart through the arteria pulmonalis and its branches to the left, fince the former fanguinis diverticula, the foramen ovale, and the ductus arteriofus are now become, if not totally impervious, at least unfit for the ufe they ferved in the foetus; whatever then in any wife intercepts refpiration, must confe quently prevent the free tranfit of the blood thro' the heart; the blood therefore which returns from all parts of the body to the vena cava will be there accumulated in an uncommon quantity, while that which returns from the vijcera abdominis into the finus vence portarum muft find great refiftance, by reafon of the blood collected in the great refervoir, the cava, to its paffage either thro' the ductus venofus, if that be ftill pervious, or through the liver, to return by the hepatic branches of the cava; the confequence of this will be that the force with which the blood used to pass thro' the liver, or ductus venojus, or both, will vent itself qua data porta, or where there Dis the leaft refiftance to its paflage, that is, thro' the vena umbilicalis, which I now fuppote entirely pervious. I hope fome of your ingenious correfpondents will give their opinions on this kind of cafes, in doing which they will extremely oblige us practitioners in this country, who, to speak the truth, are fo iguoE rant in affairs relating to the obftetric art that we fometimes, in cafe of twins, leave one in the uterus, to make its exit into this or that world as it pleases. whatever it be, which helps to drive on G I am, Sir, &c. Hawkhurft, Kent, Feb. 22. G. Watts. THE flory of the music and apparitions re lated by Mijs Blandy has brought to mind a matter of fact long fince communicated to us by a man of great veracity, as a piece of his own private history, which we fball now lay before our readers. SIR, I Was apprenticed to a draper at G, a man of more knowledge in trade than religion. To prevent any taint of my morals, my father (as he lived directly oppofite chofe I should ftill lodge and board at home, and his business obliging him to dine exactly at half an Hhou past twelve, I was daily called over by him at that time. Tho' of a fpare and weak conftitution, my fpirits and imagination were very lively, and bid fair for a youth of great vivacity; and by frequent reading 2 174 Voice miraculous-Remedy-Senfe of John ii. 6. On the 23d of August 1736, at noon, standing at the fhop door with my mif- A trefs, and maid fervant, and Mr Bloxham, then rider to Mr Oakes and Co. (who now lives and follows the haberdashery trade himself in Cateaton street) we were chufing figured ribbons and other millinary goods, when I heard my father's voice call Charles, very audibly, as accustomed. I answered, Coming, Sir. B being (as I before obferved) a lad of raifed fpirits and extreme vivacity, which might perhaps, in time, have led me into all the fnares and pleasures of the prefent age, my mind and difpofition from that hour received a new turn, I became another creature,one fresh-forined, of a grave faturnine difpofition, few words, defpifing the prefent vanities and vices of the world, and affociated with very few youths from that time after. It is commonly faid that accidents of this fort are foreboding and prognostic, either of lofs of friends or fortune. This maid was an inftrument in the hand of providence to root this belief in me, and to keep me steady in the paths of virtue from that period. And it is very remarkable, that I had an only uncle (who was gunner of the Biddeford, then ftationed at Leith) that died there that fame day, and about the fame hour. 1 am, Sir, &c. SIR, A. B. Chart, Kent. the paragraph which you have inferted in your January Magazine, (p. 5) concerning the Hiccough, please to add the following: Being intent in viewing the patterns, I ftayed about four minutes, when I heard the voice a zd time call Charles. -The maid heard it then as well as myself, and answered, He is coming, Mr W-m-n.-But the pattern book not being gone through with, I was impa- c tient to fee the end, and being alfo unwilling to detain the gentleman, I still tarried. Then I faw the door open, heard my father call a third time in a itrong, emphatical, angry, tone, and Ted fhutting the door I heard its found.Both my mistress and the maid heard this laft call; on which the pushed me out of the shop, with Sirrah, get you gone, your father is quite angry at your stay. I run over, lifted up the latch, but found the door locked. Then going in at the back gate, faw my mother in law in the yard, but, without faying any thing to her, I immediately went in, where I found no father, nor any appearance of dinner. Returning, I enquired of her for my father; the faid he was not come home, nor would dine at home that day. My furprize was great, my hair flood upright, and I acquainted her with both my hearing and seeing him; but The treating the ftory as an idle tale, I was very near being threshed for it. I then went back to the company, whofe confternation was as great as my own. The maid, (a very fober, religious perfon) immediately told me it was a fign of death, and that I fhould not live long, and inculcated this notion in me fo ftrong, that from that hour I thought of nothing but dying, and kept myfelf in conftant preparation for and expectation of it. Whether all this was the force of imagination I cannot fay, I believe it may, I will not argue to the contrary, tho' two fenfes of two perlons befides myfelf could not, probably, be fo liable to deception. This I know, and believe, that an alighry hand was concerned in it; for D E F "There is not in the whole materia medica a more grateful medicine to the ftomach. In febribus mali moris, quæ vapores deleterios ad ftomachum fuffundunt, fpiritufque labentes irritant, in confufiones er fpafmos adigunt, et fingultum indè excitant, hoc nobile prorfùs cardiacum divinitùs fuccurrit, et funeftum fymptoma Juperat." I am, Sir, &c. É. W. W et SIR, Chart, in Kent. 7Hereas in your January Magazine (p. 22.) there was a letter figned MYRTILLO, addreffed to E. W. concerning a criticifm on John ii. 4. for the further fatisfaction of that gentleman, and in compliance with his requeft, I have, to the quotation of Mark i. 24. (the only one then inferted) added bere feveral more, viz. 2 Samuel xix. 22. 1 Kings xvii. 18. Matthew xxvii. 19. all which confirm the current tranflation we now have Woman, what have I to G do with thee, notwithstanding thofe plaufible objections which the anonymous writer has made in p. 551 of your December Magazine. Mr MYRTILLO defires my fentiments concerning Mark x. 25. I cannot come into his opinion that it is a mis-tranflation, I rather look upon it as a proverbial expression. "He H 66 who trufts in uncertain riches, and "trufts not in the living God, shall find no admiffion into the kingdom of "God." Impoffible! it is easier for, &c. Lam, Str, &c. E. W. ! CUT |