Retting

“ The time of sowing extends from the middle of March to the middle of June, while the reaping, which depends upon the time of sowing and upon the weather, is performed from the end of June to the middle of October. The crop is said to be ready for gathering when the flowers appear; if gathered before, the fibre is weak, while if left until the seed is ripe, the fibre is stronger, but is coarser and lacks the characteristic lustre.
The fibre is separated from the stalks by a process of retting similar to that for flax and hemp. ”

“ If the retentive faculty of the womb be weak, and the expulsive faculty strong, and of a quick sense, it brings them forth the sooner. Sometimes they flow sooner by reason of a fall, stroke, or some violent passion, which the parties themselves can best relate. If it be from heat, thin and sharp humours, it is known by the distemper of the whole body. The looseness of the vessels, and weakness of the retentive faculty, is known from a moist and loose habit of the body. It is more troublesome than dangerous. If it proceed from a sharp blood, let her temper it by a good diet and medicines. ”

“ I heard what resembled the pattering of little feet, as of the rat running over the lid of an empty box; and once or twice I clearly distinguished the short, shrill cricket-like “chirp” that rats are wont to utter. I can think of no more disagreeable sound than the voice of a rat, and at that time it sounded doubly disagreeable. You may smile at my simple fears, but I could not help them. I could not help a presentiment that somehow or other my life was in danger from the presence of this rat, and the presentiment was not a vain or idle one, as you shall afterwards learn. ”

“ Prisoner. I put the same question with regard to Sherrett's.
Surgeon. I cannot answer it; here the lungs were devoured by the fishes; no signs of lesion can be detected in an organ that has ceased to exist.
Prisoner. This is too partial. Why select one injury out of several? What I ask is this: could you have detected violence in Sherrett's case, although the fishes had eaten the flesh off his body. ”

“ In the following elementary treatise for the use of public schools, I propose following exactly the same plan as my parson (a good fellow not afraid of a ferret or a rat) does with his sermons—that is, divide it into different heads, and then jumble up all the [Pg 9] heads with the body, till it becomes as difficult to follow as a rat's hole in a soft bank; and, to begin with, I am going to talk about ferrets, for without them rat-catching won't pay. ”

“ Then, when the dress had been removed preparatory to the examination of the body, the Professor himself and his assistants minutely searched every part of it—in vain. There was no other, even the smallest, mark of blood to be found.
"Are you sure that that spot is blood?" asked the lawyer.
"Are you sure whether a deed is signed or is not signed when you see it?" retorted the anatomist. "Yes; that spot has been caused by a drop of blood falling there—a very minute drop. Of that there can be no doubt. And now we must proceed to examine the body externally. ”

“ And these numbers have their functions in common one with another. For example, ‘the kidneys counsel,’ ‘the spleen laughs,’ ‘the stomach sleeps,’ ‘the liver gets angry.’ It is not to be wondered at that the kidneys have power to give counsel; we observe something similar when the testicles have been removed; one that has been castrated is weaker than a woman; the beard does not grow, and, what is more significant, the person can no longer give advice, counsel. ”

“ I was bidden to study the penalties laid down for those who do not proceed to the destruction of their rats. When I weighed my landlord rat against five treasury notes I confess that in an hour of meanness I permitted the notes to tip the scale. I prepared phosphor paste and laid a trail of this loathsome condiment upon the path trodden every afternoon by my rat. ”

“ How much more careful, then, should be the medical examination of the remains in the progress of decay, with the distortion and discoloration of the features, and the consequent change or destruction of the peculiar expression of the countenance by which human features are usually distinguished and identified. ”

“ The law-suit went on for five years, and during that time the horse was left quietly in the stable eating his oats comfortably, for the bailiff had never ridden him since the first day, as he looked upon him as a dangerous wretch that had sold his soul to the devil, and he didn't dare to kill the beast because he was what is called the corpus delictus of the whole affair. The most learned vetinairy surgeons, six in number, were brought to look at the horse, but no good came of that, for they didn't agree. ”

“ When the rectum is paralysed, in which case the fæces are either discharged involuntarily, or retained, the same remedies must be used, and clysters are to be administered, sometimes of an astringent nature, such as the decoction of cypress, of rush, or of bramble; and sometimes emollient; such as the fat of swine and geese, and the oil of mallows; and sometimes stimulating, such as salt water, the decoction of colocynth, or the like. Nothing contributes so much to motion as variety of exercise with the lever. ”

“ An excitable maid-servant employed to convey hot water to the patient’s room, and compelled to witness his agony, fell down in a swoon on the kitchen floor, and while her fellow-servants crowded round her to recover her, Letty carried up the next supply of water in the general confusion. A medical man was endeavouring to restrain the convulsions of the young man, and while he did so he caught Letty’s eye—that rational, full, deep, well-set eye—as she stood on the threshold, and, with an imperative sign, he summoned her to his assistance. ”

“ Every dead body which has lain for inspection a certain time, and is unclaimed, is sent to one or other of the schools of Anatomy, whence it is returned after proper examination enveloped in matting and ready for interment. ”

“ For just as a stream of water deposits mud, so the various viscera, the heart excepted, are, as it were, deposits from the stream of blood in the vessels. And as to the heart, the very starting-point of the vessels, and the actual seat of the force by which the blood is first fabricated, it is but what one would naturally expect, that out of the selfsame nutriment of which it is the recipient its own proper substance shall be formed. ”

“ On the Anomalies of Accommodation and Refraction of the Eye, p. 22.
3. In many animals, notably in rabbits, the internal and external recti are either absent or rudimentary, so that. practically, in such cases, there are only two recti, just as there are only two obliques. In others, as in many fish, the internal rectus is negligible. ”

“ L. When a vein of rock which is going on smoothly, is interrupted by another troublesome little vein, which stops it, and puts it out, so that it has to begin again in another place--that is called a fault. I always think it ought to be called the fault of the vein that interrupts it; but the miners always call it the fault of the vein that is interrupted. ”

“ But on closer examination of the countenance of Gilles de Retz, contraction in the muscles of the face, nervous quivering of the mouth, spasmodic twitchings of the brows, and above all, the sinister expression of the eyes, showed that there was something strange and frightful in the man. ”

“ For nature (as the physicians allege) having intended the superior anterior orifice only for the intromission of solids and liquids, and the inferior posterior for ejection, these artists ingeniously considering that in all diseases nature is forced out of her seat, therefore, to replace her in it, the body must be treated in a manner directly contrary, by interchanging the use of each orifice; forcing solids and liquids in at the anus, and making evacuations at the mouth. ”

“ The king wanted to be bled, and the surgeon was sent for. He came, and began to bind up the king's arm, while they placed a bason to receive the blood. The surgeon took the fatal lancet out of his turban, and was just going to open the vein, when, accidentally casting his eye on the bason, he read these words that were engraved upon it. Never begin anything till you have first reflected what will be the end of it. He instantly fell into a deep study, and said within himself, 'If I bleed the king with this lancet, he is a dead man. ”

“ A physician, haying met with a messenger of happy augury, or having been encouraged on his journey by the notes of auspicious birds or sights, should go to the house of his patient. [Then, haying entered the sick room] , the physician should view the body' of his patient, touch it with his own hands, and enquire (about his complaint) . Several authorities hold that these three, (inspection, touch and questioning) largely form the means of our ascertaining the nature of a disease. ”

“ Abundance came both far and near all the Week to see me, and amongst the rest a Surgeon, who persuaded me to have the Bone of my right Leg taken off, to which I gave Consent. On the 25th about 6 in the Morning, when I arose and opened the Cloaths, I found my Legs were fallen from me, and the Pains I then suffered were not worthy to be called Pains; so I dressed it with the same Medicine I made use of before; within two Hours after came several People to visit me. I unbound the Cloaths and the Flesh was closed over the Bone, and the Blood was stopp'd. ”

“ You know that the first appearance of the new head of Tubularia, after an operation, consists in the formation of two rings of red lines, inside the stem, these rings being the primordia of the new tentacles. I removed the terminal ring by a second operation soon after it had arisen, disturbing in this way the process of restitution itself: and then the process of restitution itself became regulated. The organism indeed changed its course of morphogenesis, which was serving the purposes of a restitution, in order to attain its purpose in spite of the new disturbance which had occurred. ”

“ There is nothing like the rod, says the doctor; it is a universal specific, it stirs up the stagnating juices, it dissolves the precipitating salts, it purifies the coagulating humours of the body, it clears the brain, purges the belly, circulates the blood, braces the nerves; in short, there is nothing which the rod will not do, when judiciously applied. ”

“ Where the rats have got altogether too thick, or where they hold possession of a place in such a way that there appears no clue to dislodging them, it is quite advisable to call in an expert. To this effect I have perfected a regular system of rat-exterminating in which the remedies I mention in this book are systematically applied—under my own superintendence—by a corps of experts. ”

“ Persons discovering one or more mineral hills absolutely new, in which there is no mine or trial pit open, may, under article 1, title 6, of the ordinance, acquire, in the principal vein which they may select, three pertenencias, continuous or interrupted, according to certain prescribed measurements, and if they have discovered more than one vein they may have one pertenencia for each, to be determined and marked out within the term of ten days. ”

“ If, for instance, a rat has undergone this process, one may recognise in the dry and shapeless mass, the place occupied by the muzzle of the animal, the long whiskers of its cheeks, the down which covered the delicate cartilages of its ears, the hairs of various lengths and colours which correspond with those of the back, the belly, and above all, the tail ”

“ Some of us found great difficulty in rising we were so benumbed; we stretched out first one limb and then another, until we were able to set our bodies in motion, and after we had so done, it was some time before the circulation of the blood was restored. ”

“ The surgeon was delighted. Standing over his subject, who lay on the captain's table, he told that officer how he should proceed. “I have all the syringes,” he said; “a capital collection. I shall inject the veins with care and patience; then I shall remove the brain and the viscera, and provided I'm not stinted in arsenic and spices——”
“I give you carte blanche on the purser: make your preparations, and send for him. Don't tell me how you do it; but do it. I must write and tell poor Lucy I have got him, and am bringing him home to her—dead.” ”

“ When some irregularity or arrest of development occurs in the process we have one or other of the numerous malformations which may affect this region. If the arrest occurs at a very early stage we may even find a condition of things which seems to approximate to that which normally exists in the adult reptilia. ”

“ The manner of removal of the organs, the character and condition of the instruments used, nature and condition of receptacles for material, manner of sealing, use of preservatives, method of transportation to the chemist, and other fine points of detail will all be threshed over in court in the endeavor [Pg 189] to discredit the testimony, and the pathologist and chemist must be thoroughly prepared to meet all questions of this nature. ”

“ For instance, I have been told that if you give flesh, such as rats and birds, to a ferret that has young ones, it will drag it into the straw among the little ones, who will get the blood on them, and then the mother will eat them by mistake. ”