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engraving with the same ease with which he uses the pencil on paper; 'and, secondly, the circumstance of his being enabled to have any number of copies taken at less than half the expense of ordinary copperplate print

ing.

Nothing equal, it is true, to the tone, or minute elegance of the best line engraving can be produced, but an inspection of the works already mentioned, will show how admirably it is adapted to represent objects of a picturesque description, natural history, outlines, anatomical subjects, plans, &c. It is also applicable to the purpose of multiplying writings, as the subject can be written on the prepared paper, afterwards transferred to the stone, and then printed without delay, at no further expense than the printing. In this way all the proclamations of the state at Munich are made public.

Directions.-A slate of white lias (Bath stone), about one inch thick, must be made perfectly level, and polished with very fine sand. The subject is then drawn on the stone with a common pen, and a prepared liquid of the consistence of common ink, and with the same facility; after this the stone is washed over with diluted nitric acid, which slightly corrodes that part of the stone only which has not been drawn on with the pen. The liquid is made with gum lac, dissolved in ley of pure soda, with a little soap, and coloured with lamp black. The liquid upon the stone, after the design is drawn, must be allowed to dry for about four days, and then soaked in water till perfectly saturated; in this state (with the water on the surface), a common printing ball is dabbed over it as in type printing. This ink adheres to such parts as have been drawn upon, the other parts of the stone being wet, repel the printing ink; the impression is then taken, by passing it through a press with a single cylinder. When the print is wished to resemble a chalk drawing, the stone is left rather rough, by using a coarser sand to polish it; and instead of the ink and pen being used, a crayon made of the same materials (only with a larger quantity of the lamp black) is applied in the same manner as a pencil. There is another method by which it may be done, namely, by covering the stone over with a thin mixture of VOL. I.

gum water and lamp black, and after it is dry, the design is drawn with the point of an etching needle, in the same way as on copper, cutting through the covering of gum and black, till the surface of the stone is reached, and then rubbing the solution into the lines or scratches. This done, it must be allowed to dry for the above mentioned time, and then soaked as before in water, when the gum will dissolve, leaving the lines only; upon which the printing ink is applied, as before explained, and the impression taken.

Should this plan find a place in the Magazine, it is proposed to give, in some of your subsequent numbers, a short account of the history of the discovery, and of the methods used in common etching upon copper, together with some receipts for the preparation of the grounds, &c.

ANECDOTE OF THE HIGHLANDERS IN 1745. (Communicated by MARY LADY CLERK to the Publisher.)

SIR,

ACCORDING to your request this morning, I send you some account of the particulars that attended my birth,which I do with infinite pleasure, as it reflects great honour on the Highlanders (to whom I always feel the greatest gratitude), that at the time when their hearts were set on plunder, the fear of hurting a sick lady and child instantly stopped their intentions.

This incident occurred November 15, 1745. My father, Mr D'Acre, then an officer in his Majesty's militia, was a prisoner in the castle of Carlisle, at that time in the hands of Prince Charles. My mother (daughter of Sir George le Fleming, Bart. bishop of Carlisle) was living at Rose-Castle, six miles from Carlisle, where she was delivered of me.-She had given orders that I should immediately be privately baptized by the bishop's chaplain (his lordship not being at home), by the name of Rosemary D'Acre. At that moment a company of Highlanders appeared, headed by a Captain Macdonald; who, having heard there was much plate and valuables in the castle, came to plunder it. Upon the approach of the Highlanders, an old gray-headed servant ran out, and entreated Captain Macdonald not to pro

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ceed, as any noise or alarm might occasion the death of both lady and child. The captain inquired when the lady had been confined? "Within this hour," the servant answered :Captain Macdonald stopped. The servant added, "They are just going to christen the infant."-Macdonald, taking off his cockade, said, “Let her be christened with this cockade in her cap; it will be her protection now, and after, if any of our stragglers should come this way: We will await the ceremony in silence;"-which they accordingly did, and then went into the coach-yard, and were regaled with beef, cheese, ale, &c. They then went off, without the smallest disturbance.

My white cockade was safely preserved, and shewn to me from time to time, always reminding me to respect the Scotch, and the Highlanders in particular. I think I have obeyed the injunction, by spending my life in Scotland, and also by hoping at last to die there.

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ON THE ORIGIN OF HOSPITALS FOR THE SICK.

THE Greeks had no name to express what we understand by the word hospital. Novoxov has a different meaning in the classical Greek writers, and is first used, as we now translate it, by St Jerome and St Isidore. At Athens, provision was made in the prytaneum for the maintenance of those who had been severely wounded in war, as well as for that of their wives and children; but there was no asylum for even these persons in case of sickness. Far less was any such accommodation within the reach of the poor citizens, or the mercenaries who always formed a large proportion of the Athenian force. At Lacedemon, where, according to the rule of Lycurgus, all the citizens eat in common, there was nevertheless no establishment which bore any resemblance to our hospitals. The Helots were abandoned in case of sickness; and a similar fate attended even the Ephori themselves, if they happened to have no private fortune. This neglect of the Athenian and Spartan legislatures was imitated by the other Grecian states. In the oath of Hippocrates, that illustrious physician swears, "that he will all his life visit the sick and give them his advice gratis." At that time the medical practitioners were both surgeons and apothecaries, so it would appear that Hippocrates furnished the sick in his neighbourhood with medicines without expecting any reward.

Among the Romans, in like manner, we should seek in vain for any establishments intended to alleviate the sufferings of the indigent sick. Nothing of the sort is mentioned among the pious institutions of Numa; and Servius, who distributed the people into classes, never thought of the numerous classes of poor, sick, and infirm. During the time of the republic there were frequent distributions of land, and divisions of the spoils taken from the enemies of the state, which ameliorated in some degree the lot of those who were called the capite censi, because they could offer nothing to the lour and their life. service of their country but their vaYet all these largesses and gratifications were distributed among those who enjoyed good health, and no establishments for the sick were erected either under

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the republic or under the emperors. These last indeed erected baths and therma for the use of the poor, and also made public distributions of food; and in these respects their example was followed by the wealthy patricians, who affected to give every day to their poor clients what went by the name of the sportula. We see by the descriptions of Juvenal, that the poor and infirm dependants of these nobles had no other resource to look to; for, according to him, the most acute distempers could not prevent them drag ging their steps to the portico, and soliciting their share in the sportula. "Quid macies ægri veteris quem tempore longo

Torret quarta dies olimque domestica febris, &c."

It is easy to see that no public asylum was open for their reception. Both Greeks and Romans, then the two most polished nations of antiquity, consecrated no retreats for the unfortunate. This was most probably the consequence of their constitutions and forms of government. Divided at all times into freemen and slaves, the legislatures of these two nations never bestowed much attention on the second of these great bodies of men-but always regarded them as of a different race, and, as it were, the dregs of humanity. A slave dangerously ill was left entirely to the care of his fellows in servitude; in many instances his master would not even be at the expense of burying his corpse, and allow ed it to be thrown out to the vultures. The Esquiline Mount, whitened, according to Horace, by the great number of bones left there in heaps by these birds of prey, is a sufficient proof how little care was taken of the funerals of the poor. These unhappy men, of whom there was always a great number even in the best days of Athens and Rome, had then no other resource in their calamities but private charity, the strength of their constitutions, or the crisis of nature.

The temple of Esculapius, in the island of the Tiber, was indeed a sort of hospital, although far from corresponding exactly to what we call by that name; at least, the law of the Emperor Claudius, which declares that slaves abandoned by their masters in the island of Esculapius, should be held free in case of their recovery, seems to intimate that there was in that place

a seigneurial hospital destined for their reception. But it is not till the establishment of Christianity that we can find any traces of those institutions, which are now so common in Christendom, for the accommodation of the infirm and the unfortunate. In spite of all the persecutions to which the first Christians were exposed, we find, that about the year 258, Laurentius, chief of the deacons, assembled a great number of poor and sick, who were supported by the alms of the church. But it was in the year 380 that the first regular hospital was built. St Jerome informs us, that Fabiola, a Roman matron of distin guished piety, founded, for the first time, a nosocomium, that is, as he himself explains it, 66 a house in the country for the reception of those unhappy sick and infirm persons who were before scattered among the places of public resort,-and for the purpose of furnishing them in a regular manner with nourishment, and those medicines of which they might stand in need." This establishment was situ ated at some distance from the city, and in a healthy part of the country.

When Constantine transferred the seat of the empire to Byzantium, he caused an hospitium to be erected for the use of those strangers and pilgrims who had by his time begun to visit the East from motives of religion. This edifice was constructed after the model of the house which Hircanus had built at Jerusalem, about 150 years before the commencement of our

era.

That prince sought, by the establishment to which I allude, to purify himself, in the eyes of the Jews, from the stain which he had contracted by the sacrilegious rifling of the tomb of David. The riches which he had procured in that impious manner, would, he flattered himself, be less unfavourably regarded, if he should share them with the poor pilgrims, whom zeal or curiosity drew in multitudes to the capital of Judea. This, according to Isidore, is the origin of the name doxo, i. e. hospital for strangers, which was given to this building. In the year of our Lord 550, the Emperor Justinian constructed, at Jerusalem, the celebrated hospital of St John, which was the cradle of the military order of the knights of Rhodes and Malta. His successors imitated his example with so much

zeal, that Ducange thinks Constantinople contained at one time thirty-five different charitable institutions of this nature. Those who travelled to the holy land were there received gratis into commodious hotels, and from these the caravansaries of the East have taken their origin-buildings which a few centuries ago attracted so much admiration from Europeans, accustomed to the hostelleries of their own countries, at that time at once dear and filthy. The Emperor Julian attributed in a great measure to these charitable institutions the rapid progress of Christianity, and had it in view to attempt the re-establishment of Paganism by similar means. "We pay not sufficient at tention (says he in a letter to Arsaces, sovereign pontiff of Galatia) to those means which have most contributed to the extension of the Christian superstition-I mean kindness to strangers, and attention to the burial of the poor. Erect forthwith, in all your cities, hospitals for the reception of strangers, not only those of your own faith, but all indifferently; and if they stand in need of money, let them be supplied by the imperial officers."

In the Byzantine historians, and in the ancient charters, these hospitals receive different names, as Nosocomium, retreat for the sick-Xenodochium, Xenon, retreat for strangersPtochium, Ptochodochium, Ptochotrophium, hospital for the poor and mendicants-Brephotrophium, asylum for indigent children-Orphanotrophium, orphan hospital-Gerocomium, hospital for old men-Pandochæum, gratuitous hotel or caravansary-Morotro phium, hospital for idiots.

In the very interesting work of Durand, entitled, " Parallele des Edifices de tout genre," we find a comparative view of the plans of a great many different hospitals of various kinds, such as those of Milan, Geneva, Plymouth, St Louis at Paris, Langres, the Incurables at Paris, the Lazaretto for persons afflicted with the plague at Milan, &c.—The great hospital at Milan, on account of its vast dimensions, and the form of a cross in which it is built, and also on account of the numerous galleries which every where surround the building, was long looked upon as the best model of hospital architecture. The architects of the different hospitals in Paris, as well as those of this country, have all taken

seful hints from it. A report was

formed, by order of the French government, about the year 1788, in which a committee of medical persons and architects, gave their united opinions as to the general rules which ought to be observed in all buildings of this nature. Their principal remarks are these

that all the wards should be separate-that a free communication, by means of covered galleries, should be kept up between all parts of the house

so large as to admit of the utmost purity of air, and to be serviceable, as promenades, for the convalescents.

The hospitals of this city, and of Glasgow, have been long regarded with much admiration by all visitors; and the Lunatic asylum, lately erected in the latter city, is perhaps the most noble monument of the professional talents of the late Mr Stark.* Edinburgh, March 1817.

ON SITTING BELOW THE SALT."

MR EDITOR,

Q.

IN your last Number I read a short paper, entitled, "On sitting below the Salt," in which the author gives several quotations to prove that the ancient custom mentioned in the "Black Dwarf," and "Old Mortality," of placing the guests above or below the salt, according to their respective dignities, was not a mere fabrication of the writer's brain. In common with

your correspondent, I have heard men of information, and even of antiquarian research, express their doubts as to the existence of such a custom during any period of our history.

Being an ardent admirer of the two works which have recently called our attention to this fashion of our ancestors, and as it is in these works

alone, in as far as my information enables me to judge, that such a practice has been alluded to in modern times, I feel anxious to contribute towards the exculpation of their mysterious author, from the charge of mingling the spirit of fiction with the voice of truth.

In addition, therefore, to the proofs which have been adduced in your first Number, I beg leave to call your attention to the following extracts, which have escaped the notice of J. M.; and which, besides shewing the universali

The reader may find much information upon this interesting subject, in Beckmann's History of Inventions, vol. 4.

ty of the practice, are somewhat curious in themselves, and worthy the perusal of your readers.

I find the distinction of seats, in relation to the position of the salt-vat, familiarly known to English writers as far back as 1597, at which time were published the earlier works of Joseph Hall, successively bishop of Exeter and Norwich, and one of our first legitimate satirists. As Hall's satires have never been printed in a commodious form, they may not have fallen into the hands of the generality of your readers, and as the one which contains the illusion to the custom in question is short, and affords a good example of that writer's style, I shall insert it at full length.

"A gentle Squire would gladly entertaine Into his house some trencher-chaplaine; Some willing man that might instruct his

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Last, that he never his young master beat,
But he must ask his mother to define,
How many jerkes she would his breech
should line.

All these observed, he could contented be
To give five markes and winter liverie."
Satire VI. B. 2d.
In an entertaining old book, by
Nixon, entitled, “ Strange Foot-Post,
with a packet full of strange petitions,"
London 1613, 4to, the author, speak-
ing of the miseries of a poor scholar,
makes the following observations :-

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Now, as for his fare, it is lightly at the cheapest table, but he must sit under the salt, that is an axiome in such places:-then having drawne his knife leisurably, unfolded his napkin mannerly, after twice or thrice wiping his beard, if he have it, he may reach the bread on his knife's point, and fall to his porrige, and between every sponefull take as much deliberation as a capon craming, lest he be out of his porrige before they have buried part of their first course in their bellies." (F. 3.)

In the works of our early dramatists there are not unfrequent allusions of a similar nature.

Thus, in the play called Cynthia's

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You ne'er presume to sit above the salt."
Act III. Scene I.

the above passage) for the delicacy of
"It argues little (says Gifford on
our ancestors, that they should admit
but in truth they seem to have placed
of such distinctions at their board;
their guests below the salt, for no bet-
ter purpose than that of mortifying
them.'

That this custom was not limited to our own island, but was familiar at least in France, is evinced by the following passage from Perat, who flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century. In speaking of the manners suitable to men of noble birth, in regard to the different kinds of ridicule and pleasantry, he says of one species, " Neque ejusmodi dicacitates nobilitatem honestant: quamvis enim clientium caterva, amicorum humiliores, totaque omnino infra salinum stipata cohors, scurrantem dominum, et (ut ait Flaccus,) imi Derisorem lecti, cachinnationibus suis insulsis adulari soleant; ii. tamen," &c.-De Inst. Nob. p. 36.

The foregoing quotations, however curious in themselves, may, I fear, in regard to the subject which they are intended to illustrate, have appeared redundant or unnecessary to some of your readers, particularly after the satisfactory instances brought forward by J. M. of the prevalence of the

same custom.

On a general view, it would form a

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