Cue stick

“ To thrust a piece of Lead into your Eye, and to drive it about with a Stick between the Skin and Flesh and Forehead, untill it be brought to the other Eye, and there thrust out. Put a piece of lead into one of the neither lids of your eye, as big as a tag of a point, but not so long which you may do without danger, and with a little juggling stick one end thereof being hollow, seem to thurst the like piece of lead under the other eyelid, but convey the same, indeed, into the hollownes of the stick, the steeple or peg thereof may be privately kept in your hand untill this feat be done ”

“ A cue, if too heavy, will paralyze the nerves of the arm and render them unable to estimate correctly the amount of force employed; if too light, on the other hand, it will call for an amount of force so great as to be incompatible with a steady and deliberate aim. Without some sensation communicated to the hand through the cue, when it contacts with the ball, it would be impossible for experts to accomplish the great runs so often made.
The heavier the cue the less is the influence of the stroke on the ball felt, and it is carried beyond or falls short of the point desired. ”

“ Do not use much force lest the tympanum be injured. If this fail, dry the ear, stick the end of a little linen swab into thick glue, let the patient lie on one side, put this into the ear until it touches the substance, keep it there three quarters of an hour while it hardens, and then draw them all out together. Be careful that the glue does not touch the skin at any point, and that you are at work upon the right ear. Children often deceive one as to the ear which is affected. ”

“ This, too, receives a rough rotundity and tapering on a lathe. At the thicker end, a sawing-out process creates an opening, so that the “butt” and shaft can dovetail to a depth of seven inches.
The cue is then sawed across into halves. On the base of the upper half a hard wood screw is inserted and at the top of the butt a threaded hole is bored. To strengthen the joint, the hollow screw-hole end is capped with an ivory ferule sunk flush with the surface. This is the jointed cue—a great convenience to the player who travels or carries his cue home when he plays at the club or public academy. ”

“ In playing or practising the spot, the cue should be constantly 268chalked, or the requisite delicacy of touch will be lost, and miss-cues will result; side should never be used when the stroke is possible without it, for the actual hazard is by its use at once made a difficult stroke. Stab or screw are much safer because the cue is delivered on the central vertical line of ball 1, and they can in a great measure supersede side, but there are strokes in which the latter is obligatory. ”

“ Also, when the parties agree to play point and point of the cue, neither of them has any right to use the butt: but every person who plays with a cue, may use occasionally a long one, and in such case he may play with the point of a long cue or a mace. ”

“ The same effect will take place if he stops both his ears with his hands, and rest his teeth, his temple, or the gristly part of one of his ears against the end of a stick. Instead of a watch, a gentle scratch may be made at one end of a pole or rod, and the person who keeps his ear in close contact with the other end of the pole, will hear it very plainly. Thus, persons who are dull of hearing, may, by applying their teeth to some part of a harpsichord, or other sounding body, hear the sound much better than otherwise. ”

“ It is really important to use the same cue as far as possible; it is as essential as one’s own gun, bat, or racquet, and as jointed cues can now be procured, which are easily carried in the hand or packed in a portmanteau, it is prudent to get one. Some players fancy a heavy cue, with a broad top, for winning hazards; but this is a matter of taste, and it is generally wise always to use the same weapon. It should be remembered, in playing pool or pyramids after billiards, that the balls are usually smaller, lighter, and less true. ”

“ Alas, my reader with the pretended straight stick! thou pratest in vain to Hugh Clifford, the 'beggared140 gentleman!' I tell thee, plainly, thy stick is, like mine, a crooked one; nay, I tell thee, that every man's stick is but a crooked stick. And, of all curses under which this poor abused world groans, may it be speedily and effectually delivered, I pray, in my old age and in an alms-house, from the cant of the starched faces who assure their fellow-creatures with so much show of sanctity that their crooked sticks are straight ones! ”

“ When the stroke is given, and the cue carried forward, the hand closes naturally and without effort on the part of the player, then as the cue is drawn back the hand opens and is found again as described. ”

“ Sometimes the stick is held in the left hand, to support the performer while he sways his body backwards and forwards. At each forward movement he strikes the stick in his left hand either with a bough or with another stick. ”

“ The muscles of the external ear come often into play. One of our patients had a tic of the left ear, consisting in visible elevation of the pinna. A case of tic of the ear muscles has been described by Romberg, and another by Bernhardt, in the distribution of the occipital and posterior auricular nerves. Reference is made by Seeligmüller [63] to a ten-year-old girl suffering from unceasing involuntary contractions of the eyelids and of various head and neck muscles, with wrinkling of the forehead and movements of the ears. ”

“ We ourselves, do something like this, when we grip one end of a stick in our teeth and scratch the other end with a pin. Even a lead pencil will do for the experiment; the sound is twice as loud when we shut our teeth on the wood and hear the scratching thru the bones of the jaw, as it is when we listen with our ears alone. ”

“ The habit of breathing through the nose prevents snoring. Therefore practice keeping your mouth shut and breathing through your nose.
Ears
A Scout must be able to hear well. The ears are very delicate, and once damaged are apt to become incurably deaf. No sharp or hard instrument should be used in cleaning the ear. The drum of the ear is a very delicate, tightly stretched skin which is easily damaged. Very many children have had the drums of their ears permanently injured by getting a box on the ear. ”

“ She felt in the hole with her yam stick, and soon felt that there was something large there in the water. She cut a forked stick and tried to raise the body and get it out, for she felt sure it must be her son. But she could not raise it; stick after stick broke in the effort. ”

“ Now, if the cue be held too long for thorough control over it, as the player’s hand goes back before delivering the stroke it will take an upward direction, and one of two things must take place when the stroke is made. If, during the forward movement, the cue work in a plane, it will be depressed at the moment of contact with the ball ”

“ These white projecting spots are formed by the outer transparent membrane of a bag or ball filled with fluid, which ball or bag rests inside another cavity in the head. It resembles our own eye in having this external transparent tough membrane which corresponds to the cornea; which, like the cornea, is backed by the fluid in the ear-ball corresponding to our eyeball, and the back of this ear-ball appears to receive the outspreadings of a nerve, just as the back of our eye is lined with the outspread of the optic nerve forming the retina. ”

“ Great care must be taken not to splinter the bone. A small chisel can be used to connect the ends of the cuts. Soft parts are cut away with the chisel. An elevator is then introduced into cuts 1 and 2 and the part lifted out by cutting the remaining soft parts and the articulation of the lower jaw. The portion removed contains the inner section of the external auditory canal, tympanic cavity, ear-drum, a portion of the mastoid cells, the entire labyrinth, auditory and facial nerves. ”

“ You begin to see how difficult it is to achieve the perfect stick.
Well, each one of us must let go those properties which his own stick can do best without. For myself I insist on this—my stick must be good for hitting and good to hit with. A stick, we are agreed, is something to have in the hand when walking. But there are times when we sit down; and if our journey shall have taken us to the beach, our stick must at once be propped in the sand while from a suitable distance we throw stones at it. ”

“ The stick is an ordinary broomstick in the end of which is a sharpened nail. In use the end of the stick is held in the left hand and the point is pressed into the board at any required height. The right hand, holding the tool, is rested on the stick just as the hand of a painter rests on the mahl-stick. ”

“ Detach the skin from the back, shoulders, and neck, and [28] when you come to the ears, cut them off close down to the head. Turn the skin wrong side out over the head, until you come to the eyes. Now be careful or you will do mischief. Work slowly with the knife, keeping close to the edge of the bony orbit, until you see, through a thin membrane under your knife edge, the dark portion of the eyeball—iris and pupil. You may now cut fearlessly through this membrane and expose the eye. If your work has been properly done, you have not cut the eyelids anywhere. ”

“ When thou wishest to introduce the needle, the eye must be turned towards the light and looking straight at thee; also, I should make the patient turn his eye a little towards his nose, so that thou canst use the instrument better and that thou wilt not injure the small veins of the eye, but respect them. Direct the needle straight and with attention over the membrane called the conjunctiva, straight towards the pupil and uvea, at the distance of two blades of a knife from the membrane called cornea or from the grey that is in the eye. ”

“ The entire surface of the stick is covered by sharp, fine spines and the canes grow so close together that sometimes it a impossible to force a way through them without using an axe. The points of the spines break off in the flesh, causing it to fester and become very painful. ”

“ For an instance, a simple blinking of the eyelids may form a tic. Considered in itself, it is a movement of defence against dust or light; but in the absence of irritation it becomes meaningless. How then are we to explain the abruptness and intensity of contraction of the orbicularis palpebrarum, and of this muscle alone? If it were due to stimulation at some point on the reflex facial arc, other facial muscles ought to be involved; if referable to isolated excitation of the orbicularis filaments of the facial nerve, why is the contraction bilateral? ”

“ Injury to the anterior canal causes diagonal rolling of the eyeball. In destruction of all the canals various pendulum-like movements are performed, and standing often becomes impossible. Stimulation of one auditory nerve is followed by rotation of the eye and rotation 73of the body on its axis toward the injured side. The passage of a galvanic current through the head between the mastoid processes, or from one external auditory meatus to the other, causes rolling of the eyeballs. ”

“ The operators appear to rely largely on manual dexterity, and to aim at completing the procedure in a minimum of time. The needle or thorn is thrust suddenly through the cornea, and on through the pupil or iris, into or on to the periphery of the lens. The next movement, which appears to follow the first so rapidly as practically to melt into it, is that of depression or reclination. In this, the spot where the cornea grasps the shaft of the needle serves as a fulcrum. ”

“ In her old age, she had suffered from a rheumatic stiffness of the joints, which had necessitated the use of a stick, and, eventually, a wheeled chair; but no other ailments attacked her, until, in 1898, her eyesight began to be affected by incipient cataract. ”

“ Having planted in the ground a strong stick, in which a longitudinal slit has been made, or in which there is a natural slit, and having filled the slit with dry powdered gum leaves or the like, he draws the stick towards him, and keeps it firmly in its place by pressing his chest against it. ”

“ These are, however, only extreme or exaggerated cases of the almost universal custom of making a permanent aperture through the lobe of the ear for the purpose of inserting some adventitious object by way of adornment, or even for utility, as in the man of the Island of Mangea, figured in Cook's "Voyages," who carries a large knife through a hole in the lobe of the right ear. ”

“ Continue cutting through the sclerotic and all underlying tissues, stopping at the corneo-scleral junction, but do not, during this procedure, [88] even touch the lens. After the eye has been thus partly separated into, as nearly as possible, two equal parts, lay it down upon the cornea, and, holding the razor blade in the forefingers and thumbs of both hands, cut the lens in two by forcing the blade down through it. (Fig. 42.) Partly open the cut eye to allow one jaw of the large scissors to enter, turn the eye over so the cornea will rest on that [89] jaw, and then cut through the cornea. ”

“ The Balanced Stick.—A stick may be balanced and made to stand upright on the top of the finger by first taking the precaution to insert into its upper end, at about half an inch from that end, two knives, or two forks, or two other articles of equal weight. ”