CURE.

Various remedies have been thought of for this distemper, but all, hitherto, of the rough and violent kind, which, therefore, if they remove the symptoms for the present, leave a greater disposition toward the disorder than before. Among these the common people frequently prescribe the application of an oak stick, a horse-whip, or a leather strap or belt, which, however, are all liable to the objection I have just stated. Others have recommended argumentation; but this, like inoculation, will not produce the desired effect, unless the patient be, in some degree, prepared to receive it. Some have advised a perfect silence in all persons who are near the patient; but I must say, that wherever I have seen this tried, it has rather heightened the disorder, by bringing on fits. The same thing may be said of obedience, or letting the patient have her own way. This is precisely like giving drink in a dropsical case, or curing a burning fever by throwing in great quantities of brandy.

As the chief intention of this paper was, to prove that scolding iş a disease, and not a fault, I shall not enlarge much on the mode of cure; because, the moment my theory is adopted, every person will be able to treat the disorder secundùm artem. I shall mention, however, the following prescription, which I never found to fail, if properly administered:

Take-Of Common Sense, thirty grains,

Decent Behaviour, one scruple,

Due Consideration, ten grains.

Mix, and sprinkle the whole with one moment's thought, to be taken as soon as any of the occasional causes appear.

By way of diet, though it is not necessary to restrict the patient to a milk or vegetable diet, yet I have always found it proper to guard them against strong or spirituous liquors, or any thing that tends to heat the blood.

But it is now expedient that I should state a matter of very great importance in the prevention of this disorder, and which I have left till now, that my arguments on the subject may appear distinct, and may be comprehended under one view. It is commonly supposed, and, indeed, has often been asserted, that this disorder is peculiarTM to one only of the sexes; and, I trust, I need not add, what sex that is. But although it may be true that they are most liable to it, yet. it is certain, from the theory laid down respecting the pre-disposing causes, that the men are equally in danger. Why then do we not

find as many males afflicted with scolding as we do females? For this plain reason;-scolding, as proved above, is the effect of a certain noxious matter pent up. Now this matter engenders in men, as well as in women; but the latter have not the frequent opportunities for discharging it, which the men enjoy. Women are, by fashion and certain confined modes of life, restrained from all those public companies, clubs, assemblies, coffee-houses, &c. &c. where the men have a continual opportunity of discharging the cause of the disorder, without its ever accumulating in so great a quantity as to produce the symptoms I have enumerated. This, and this only, is the cause why the disease appears most often in the female sex. I would propose, therefore, if I were a legislator, or if I had influence enough to set a fashion, that the ladies should, in all respects, imitate the societies of the men; that they should have their clubs, their coffee-houses, disputing societies, and even their parliament. In such places, they would be able to take that species of exercise that tends to keep down the disorder, which at present accumulates in confinement, and, when nature attempts a discharge, the explosion is attended with all the violence and irregularities I have before enumerated.

Thus much I have ventured to advance respecting scolding, and I hope that I shall succeed in abating the unreasonable prejudices which have been fostered by an affected superiority in our sex, joined to a portion of ignorance, which, to say the least, renders that superiority a matter of great doubt. I have only to add, that my motives for all this have been perfectly disinterested, and that I shall be very happy to give advice to any person labouring under the disorder. Letters (post paid) may be addresssed to

CELSUS BOERHAAVE, M. D.

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.

ST. PAUL'S DAY.

IF St. Paul's day happen to be unclouded, and without rain, it is looked upon as an omen of the following year's success; if otherwise, that the year will be unfortunate. Thus the old verse,

Clara dies Pauli, bona tempora denotat anni,

Si fuerint venti, denarrant prælia genti,

Si nix aut pluviæ, pereunt animalia quæque.

The interpretation of which is very well known to be this:

If St. Paul's day be fair and clear,

It doth betide a happy year;

If blustering winds do blow aloft,

Then wars will trouble our realm full oft.

And if chance to snow or rain,

Then will be dear all sorts of grain.

ST. SWITHIN.

SWITHIN, a holy bishop of Winchester, about the year 860, and called the weeping St. Swithin, for that about his feast, Præsepe and Aselli, rainy constellations arise cosmically, and commonly cause rain.---Blount in Verbo.

ACHS AND CORNS.

THERE is nothing superstitious in the prognostications of weather, from achs and corns. Achs and corns, says the great philosopher, Bacon, do engrieve (i. e. afflict) either towards rain or frost. The one makes the humours to abound more, and the other makes the sharper.

HOUSE-LEEK.

It is common, in the north of England, to plant the herb houseleek, upon the tops of cottage houses. The learned author of the vulgar errors, informs us, that it was an ancient superstition, and this herb was planted on the tops of houses as a defensative against lightning and thunder.

HIGHLANDER.

Quincunx 126.

A HIGHLANDER, says Mr. Pennant, never begins any thing of consequence on the day of the week, on which the third of May falls, which he calls the dismal day.

WEATHER-COCKS.

VANES, on the tops of steeples, were anciently in the form of a cock, (called from hence, weather-cocks) and put up in papal times to remind the clergy of watchfulness. In summitate Crucis, quæ Campanario vulgo imponitur, Galli Gallinacea effingi solet Figura, quæ Ecclesiarum Rectores Vigilantia admoneat."

SWALLOWS.

Du Cange. Gloss.

Ir is accounted unlucky to destroy swallows :---This is probably a Pagan relique. We read, in Ælian, that these birds were sacred

to the Penates, or household gods of the ancients, and therefore were preserved. They were honoured anciently as the nuncios of the spring. The Rhodians are said to have had a solemn anniversary song, to welcome in the swallow. Anacreon addressed his tenth ode to this bird, and the following is an elegant translation of it by Mr. Thomas Moore, from whom we soon expect to see a work called the " Philosophy of Pleasure," which we are pleased and proud to say, having read a part, will entitle him to the appellation of the English Anacreon.

ODE.

Tell me how to punish thee,
For the mischief done to me?
Silly swallow! prating thing,
Shall I clip that wheeling wing?
*Or, as Teréus did of old,
(So the fabled tale is told)

Shall I tear that tongue away,
Tongue that utter'd such a lay?
How unthinking hast thou been!
Long before the dawn was seen,
When I slumber'd in a dream,
(Love was the delicious theme!)
Just when I was nearly blest,
Ah! thy matin broke my rest!

ROBIN REDBREASTS.

Mr. ADDISON supposes the popular ballad of the Bubes in the Wood to have preserved the lives of many Robin Redbreasts. The subsequent stanza places them in a very favourable point of view : "No burial this pretty pair,

"Of any man receives,

" "Till Robin-redbreast, painfully,

"Did cover them with leaves."

SPITTING.

Vide Percy's Collect. Ballads.

Spitting, according to Pliny, was superstitiously observed in averting witchcraft, and in giving a shrewder blow to an enemy. Hence seems to be derived the custom our bruisers have, of spitting in their hands, before they begin their unmanly barbarity. Several other vestiges of the superstition relative to fasting spittle, (Fasci

* Or as Tereus did of old, &c. Modern poetry has confirmed the name of Philomel upon the nightingale, but many very respestable ancients assigned this metamorphose to Progne, and made Philomel the swallow, as Anacreon does here.

nationes saliva jejuna repelle, veteri superstitione creditum est. Alex. ab Alex.) mentioned also in Pliny, may yet be traced among our vulgar. Boys have a custom (inter se) of spitting their faith, when required to make asseverations in a matter of consequence. In combinations of the colliers, &c. in the North, for the purpose of raising their wages, they are said to spit upon a stone together, by way of cementing their confederacy. We have too a kind of popular saying, when persons are of the same party, or agree in sentiments, they spit upon the same stone.”

66

CHECQUERS.

THE chequers, some ages back, a common sign of a publichouse, was originally intended for a kind of draught board, called tables, and shewed that there that game might be played. From their colour, which was red, and the similarity to a lattice, it was corruptly called the Red Lattice, which word is frequently used by ancient writers to signify an ale-house.

ON GRAMMAR, AND LANGUAGES.

THERE are some circumstances relating to the structure and analogy of languages, that seem inexplicable.

That the Greek and Latin should have their nouns and pronouns so alike in inflection, as to seem only dialects of the same language, and yet be, in every other respect, so widely, I may say, radically different, notwithstanding the small catalogue of similar words produced by pressing the digamma into the service.

In languages that have the same origin, but differ afterwards from extraneous circumstances, common words, such as sun, moon, heat, cold, will be nearly the same. In languages of distinct origin, but which afterwards become connected, common words expressing natural objects are different, while the artificial terms resemble each other. In which respect the two learned languages agree,* I leave to the judgment of the unprejudiced. The English resembles the northern languages in the first respect, and the Greek as well as the Latin, and its modern dialects, in the last. It is very remarkable,

* Most of the common words which are made to resemble each other by the aid of the digamma, as dixos, vicus, oivos, vinum, are in fact artificial words; λh and luna, ávǹp and vir, yuvǹ and mulier, seem radically different.

X-VOL. XVII.