Anonymous

Note to page 28.

I have said at the above mentioned page that “the perfection of adulteration is in gin;” and on reviewing that passage I have no cause to modify the expression; but must, with all my heart and soul, assent to the declaration of honest Jonas Hanway, that it is “a liquid fire;” and must further agree with the said true-hearted old Englishman, that “it should be sold only in quart bottles, sealed up with the king’s seal, with a very high duty, and never sold without being mixed with a strong emetic.” This I admit is a very harsh prescription, and no doubt every true lover of “blue-ruin” will exclaim, notwithstanding that he or she is aware that their “comfort” is in the most abandoned state of adulteration, and is a rank slow poison, equally ruinous to the health and the purse;—What! a gin-drinking nation, and yet not a drop of “the genuine”—of the popular English beverage, the diurnal consumption of which in the metropolis alone, would inundate the largest parish within the bills of mortality—not a drop of “the genuine” to be had for money! Yes, Bull, whether thou beest of the masculine or feminine gender, this is the truth; and it is a circumstance, the reformation of which would well become the labours of the informing tribe and the bellowers of radical reform. Here there would be a fine field for radicalism and “informing” to exercise themselves in.

Note to page 83.

I have stated at page 83, that fish out of season is unwholesome. The following fact will confirm the truth of this assertion. It is well known that in Ireland and Scotland, where great facility is presented to the country people in catching salmon, both during and after the spawning season, the eating of the fish in that state has been productive of very serious consequences to the health of the consumers. Probably the unwholesome consignments of noxious fish obtained exclusively, as the fashionable fishmongers phrase it, out of season, and to be purchased only at extravagant prices, often occasion to their epicurean customers and the legitimate gourmands much of the illness assigned to other causes.

Note to page 87.

At page 87, I have said that the quantity of tea consumed in this country is between twenty and thirty millions of lbs. weight; but I forgot to state that between two and three millions of pounds sterling are drawn out of the pocket of the public yearly in its purchase, either in the form of price or of duty. Surely the expenditure of this enormous sum by the good people of this country, and considering that tea has become so essential a part of the diet of every person in the kingdom, imposes an obligation on the sovereign company of tea dealers in Leadenhall Street to take care that the inhabitants of “this land of milk and honey,” who pay nearly eight times as much as their neighbours do for the same article (namely bohea tea), have a good and fresh commodity, instead of the tasteless, parched, insipid, and scentless rubbish which they retail out to the public, after having remained in the warehouse long enough to perish its good qualities even were its flavour and taste ten times more delicious and grateful than they are. Would it not, as it has been well said, be to the credit of some of our genuine members of the legislature to endeavour to procure the sale of a pure and good article, instead of the trash that is foisted upon the public at present, and which they cannot appeal from, by introducing a law into parliament legalizing the purchase of the article from other hands than the Leadenhall Street monopolists.

Note to page 89, &c.

An experienced friend in the tea trade who has read over and approved of the various tests I have mentioned at page 89, &c. for detecting the qualities of tea, has kindly furnished me with the following valuable communication:

“As a ready test of black tea being manufactured from old tea-leaves, dyed with logwood, &c. moisten some of the tea, and rub it on white paper, which it will blacken when not genuine. If you wish to be more particular, infuse a quantity of the sample in half a pint of cold soft water for three or four hours. If the water is then of an amber colour, and does not become red when you drop some oil of vitriol or sulphuric acid into it, you may presume the tea to be good. Adulterated black tea, when infused in cold water, gives a bluish black tinge, and it becomes instantly red with a few drops of oil of vitriol.

Note to page 154.

I observe that I have forgotten to give “a local habitation and a name” among the morning water and Sir Reverence doctors, to his Doctorship Doctor Laing, of Newman Street, Oxford Street. And I have to beg pardon, most humbly and reverently, for passing over the quondam Greenwich Crumples, alias Doctor Cameron, alias Mister Coley, in Berners Street, Oxford Street;—the Doctor to a new patient with his morning water and “shiners” in hand, but Mister, when the said “humbugged” patient, having discovered the fraud practised upon him, returns to “blow up” the Doctor for his tricks and ignorance.

Note to page 166.

After all the vapouring and drivelling nonsense that has been said, sung and trumpeted forth by a certain portion of the Periodical Press respecting the “Simplicity of Health,” it is really consoling to find at last a man of sense and critical acumen having spirit and honesty enough to relieve the public from the delusions under which it is suffering from the book in question.

“An immense quantity of drivel,” says the spirited Editor of The Edinburgh Literary Journal, 1829, “has found its way into books professing to give an account of the best mode of preserving health; but of all the drivel it has ever been our lot to peruse, that contained in the work entitled the “Simplicity of Health,” is the most pre-eminent.” The ingenious and honest reviewer, after having pointed out several of the fooleries and extravagancies of the book, adds, “We have no patience with a piece of humbug like this; we shall not insult the good sense of our readers with more of this doting nonsense.” It must be admitted that this sentence is dictated in the strictest and the justest sense of criticism, and that had all those who have ventured to laud and recommend that dangerous little book adopted somewhat of its spirit, much bodily and mental suffering might have been saved to many people who will become the victims of its misjudged and culpable directions.

The burst of indignation and ridicule expressed by the Critic respecting Hortator’s foolish directions for “Squirting water briskly into the eyes by a syringe,” is too fraught with truth and utility to be omitted: “Is it not plain from this, that the poor squirting wretch must have bleared and blood-shot eyes? Imagine a beautiful girl at her morning toilette, presenting one of this dirty old booby’s squirts at her clear blue laughing eyes! But the fact is, this impudent old wife must be descended from a long line of tailors, who have bred in and in, till the imbecile race has ended in the scarecrow who has spawned the “Simplicity of Health.”

It is with much satisfaction that I am able to support the opinion which I have expressed at page 166, by so just and judicious a criticism as the above; had I stood alone in opinion, that opinion would have been assigned to any other than its true cause—a sense of public duty, which ought with every true patriot to be paramount to every other consideration.

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I shall now close my well meant, and I hope I may say, useful and patriotic little volume, with a few words respecting those pests and scourges of society, the sharking and extortionate part of the pawnbroking trade, and those banes of human comfort and existence the madhouses.

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PAWNBROKERS.

It has been well said, that as the poorest, the most distressed, and the most friendless are those who are compelled to have dealings with, and are exposed to the “tender mercies” of pawnbrokers, it is of the utmost consequence that such men as follow the calling should be honest, correct, and even humane characters. For the sake of honesty it is to be hoped that there are many of this description; but a little, and but a little unhappy experience when urgent necessity may compel the unfortunate to have recourse to shops of this description, will convince the most thoughtless person alive, that there are numbers of heartless, griping, and extortionate scoundrels in that trade, whose conduct and dealings are a disgrace to the most contemptible sharper and swindler alive,—who by every species of fraud, extortion, and oppression, rob, harass, and plunder the poor and the miserable, and add to the distresses of those whose misfortunes have reduced them to have dealings with the detestable harpies. The taking of illegal and excessive interest is comparatively the least important of their delinquencies, though this to the poor and unfortunate is grinding in the extreme, as these knaves in their dealings with those who have neither money nor friends, treat the act of Parliament for the regulation of the Pawnbroking trade as a mere dead letter. The substitution of articles of inferior description for such as are of a greater value,—the taking off the gold hands and removing the interior works of watches, and replacing them with others which resemble them, of base metal or inferior value,—and the scraping or diminishing articles of plate and the cases of watches, are well known to those whose wants or emergencies compel them to send their property on its travels up the spout of the pop-shop. And through the defect of the law, and as the poet Crabbe says, “the protection of a drowsy bench,” sufferers but rarely obtain any redress. A periodical writer, in expressing his abhorrence of the frauds of these vermin, recommends the sufferers to lay “incessant informations against the malpractices of these villains.” But had that kind-hearted man been acquainted with the fact that informations have been repeatedly laid, and have always miscarried, and will always miscarry while the law remains in its defective state, he would, no doubt, have recommended a petition to Parliament, praying to subject the infamous impostors to the punishment of transportation for their audacious and daily frauds and swindlings practised “on the children of sorrow and the heirs of unnumbered woes and wants.” The fate of informations has been fully proved in the numerous instances in which a scoundrel in the neighbourhood of Snow Hill has defeated the purposes of justice by the contemptible quibbles, evasions, and subterfuges resorted to by his attorney in all cases in which he has been summoned before the magistrates at Guildhall, and by whose very disgraceful objections as to technicalities, he has contrived as hitherto, to laugh at and hold in contempt both Law and Justice!!!

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PRIVATE BEDLAMS.

“Where the noble mind’s o’erthrown.”

How true is the remark that “the history of the Red and White Houses,” like that of the Red and White Roses, would afford many interesting though appalling particulars were they collected in a detailable form.

“Yes! there still live some few who have escaped perpetual torture and confinement, which the soothing care of disinterested friends would have buried alive in those inquisitorial receptacles, but for the acute discernment of the eye of humanity, which accident or curiosity had directed to the spot.

“Of private madhouses there has long been but one prevailing opinion. The generality of them are instituted as a medium of existence by talentless and avaricious individuals, who are better, by far, adapted for the office of turnkeys to Newgate, than for the exercise of such moral and physical means as would appear calculated to restore lost reason. They manage these things much better in Paris; but it is not our intention to enter into particulars as regards the management of these licensed houses of correction in the home department, where every fibre of humanity appears paralysed, where victims are left to linger out their miserable and wretched existence, and to perish by means we know nothing of.” Instances innumerable are on record of the improper treatment of the unhappy persons immured in these dreary abodes; the inquest that sat at the Elephant and Castle, Pancras Road, on the body of a poor woman named Ann Goldstock, alias Coldstock, in the month of August, 1828, who came by her death, under singular circumstances, in the madhouse, otherwise yclep’d the White House at Bethnal Green, kept by one Warburton, cannot have slipped the recollection of all my readers. The case of an unfortunate man of the name of Parker confined in that place for alleged insanity, is also too remarkable to be passed over in silence. My man-servant importuned me to see the poor fellow. I accordingly went to him, and must acknowledge, that after a long interview in which I closely cross-examined him, he gave a statement of his life and transactions, distinguished for its accuracy, minuteness, and consistency. I wish the parties concerned in that affair to recollect, though I have been refused admittance to the unhappy man by one of the understrappers of that place, that I will not let this affair pass unheeded, as I have very little doubt but that I shall be able to bring to justice the knaves who have stripped the poor fellow and his injured family of their property, and who, to screen their villany, have consigned him to a madhouse.

THE END.

LONDON:
MARCHANT, PRINTER, INGRAM-COURT.

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FOOTNOTES:

[A] Mr. Accum, in his valuable book, enumerates, among the ingredients for giving the deeper or purple colour to wine, brazil-wood; but that ingenious gentleman is in error in this respect; for brazil-wood, as is well known to every practical chemist, has the property of imparting a blue colour to port wine, which is not quite the complexion that the wine-manufacturer wishes to give his spurious commodity.

[B] The introduction of this deleterious ingredient into wines is to stop the progress of their ascescency, or to recover ropy wines, or to clarify and render transparent spoiled or muddy white wines. As to the deleterious effects and dangerous consequences of this and other adulterations of wines, &c. see The Oracle of Health and Long Life; or, Plain Rules for the Attainment and Preservation of Sound Health and Vigorous Old Age. By Medicus.

[C] Direct Madeira is that which has been shipped direct from the island of Madeira, without having the benefit, as it is termed, of a voyage to the East or West Indies.

[D] East-India or West-India Cape is that portion of Cape wines which has had the benefit of a voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to the East Indies, and thence back to London. Cape Sherry is that portion of Cape wine which bears the greatest resemblance in flavour to real Sherry. Cape Madeira is so denominated from its resemblance, in point of flavour, to Madeira. Cape Burgundy, Cape Hock, Cape Sauterne, Cape Port, Cape Pontac, Cape Champagne, Cape Barsac, &c. owe their appellations to their supposed resemblance, in point of flavour, to those wines.

[E] The respectable author of “The Art of Brewing on Scientific Principles” has the following note, “Spirits vended by retail are all adulterated, and some of them to a dreadful extent. Some months since (his work was published in 1826,) a person having writing to do that would occupy great part of the night, purchased, at a liquor shop, in Newgate-street, half a pint of gin; and, during the night, he drank a goblet-full of grog, which he had made from it. He was seized with most excruciating agony, spasms of the stomach, temporary paralysis, and loss of intellect. These he attributed to some natural cause, and he gave the remainder of the liquor to a person that called on him in the morning. In about an hour that person was similarly affected. This induced inquiry; and it was ascertained that the woman who served the liquor had mistaken the bottle, and had sold half a pint of the fluid intended to prepare the adulterations for sale. The last-mentioned person who partook of the infernal mixture died of its effects.” Similar consequences have occurred from adulterated beer. Among a thousand other instances, see the Coroner’s inquest in the Times Newspaper of the 29th of June, 1829.

[F] According to the testimony of the author of “Wine and Spirit Adulterators Unmasked” the profits of the wine and spirit compounders are so great, and the chance of the detection of their frauds and impositions on the public and the revenue is almost so impossible, that many of them are to be found “vieing with the nobility of the land in the splendour of their equipages and expenditure.” He mentions one gin-shop-keeper (a worthy in the neighbourhood of St. Luke’s) who “drives his family to church, on a Sunday, in his carriage and four.” Another, who has a “richly ornamented state bed.” A third, who is to be found lolling “on an ottoman, in a French dressing-gown.” And he adds, that it is usual to give from four to six thousand guineas for the good will of a gin-shop which has an unexpired lease of eighteen or twenty years, with the drawback of the purchaser being quite at the mercy of the magistrates as to the renewal of his license.

[G] The crusting of wine in the natural way generally takes place in about nine months; but, among the artizans of the factitious wine-trade, it is accomplished in a much shorter time. Those ingenious gentry line the inside of the bottles they intend to fill with their compound called wine, by suffering a saturated hot solution of super-tartrate of potash, coloured red with a decoction of Brazil wood, to crystallize within them. Others of that honest fraternity, who dislike trouble, put a tea-spoon full of the powder of catechu into each bottle, and by this artifice soon produce a fine crusted appearance of “aged wine.” This simulation of maturity is often accomplished by the humbler dealer by covering the bottles with snow, or by exposing them to the rays of the sun, or by keeping them for a few days in hot water. Where the casks are to be bottled off by the purchaser, or in his presence, they are stained in the inside with the artificial crystalline crust of super-tartrate of potash, as a proof of the age of the wine.

[H] To produce the dilapidations of “Father Time” on wine corks, the dry rot, however injurious to others, is of great advantage to wine-dealers, as it soon covers the bottles with its mouldy appearance, and consumes the external part of the cork; so that with a trifling operation on the bottles after they are filled, and then deposited in cellars pretty strongly affected with the dry rot, they can furnish the admirers of “aged wine” with liquor having the appearance of having been bottled seven or eight years, though it has not in reality been there so many months. The staining of the lower extremities of the corks with a fine red colour, produced from a strong decoction of Brazil wood and alum, to make them appear “aged,” or as if they had been long in contact with the wine, is another of the devices of the factitious wine-trade, and forms a distinct branch of its operations.

[I] Among the numerous delusions with which the senses of the “error ridden” nation of Englishmen—aye, and the “bonnie Scots,” and the “Sons of the Emerald Isle,” are benighted, is the false and erroneous opinion that strong stimulating liquors impart strength to the body. As a very sensible writer observes on this subject,—“To depend on spirituous liquors for the power to labour, is as wise as it would be in a man, setting out for York, to get a friend to give him a kick on the b—— to help him forward. His friend must continue the same kind office all the way, or he would continually flag.” No work of the present age has contributed more effectually to remove these mistaken notions than “The Oracle of Health and Long Life.” May its well-intentioned and judicious author have the consolation of finding that his important instructions have contributed to the health and welfare of the community; and may the unqualified approval of his little volume, by the respectable part of the periodical press of the country be a stimulus to fresh exertion to render the work faultless.

[J] Mr. Brewer Child’s recipe (see Treatise on Brewing, p. 23) for making new beer old, is to throw in a dash of vitriol. “A smack of age,” he likewise adds, at p. 18, “is also given to beer, by the addition of alum.” Well done, brewer Child; thou art an expeditious chap! Thou mightest have been of service in the Court of Chancery, in tempore Lord Chancellor Eldon, of doubting and delaying memory.

[K] On this subject, Mr. J. D. Williams, the Editor of Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries, has rendered no trifling service to society, by his petition, presented to the House of Commons, by the Marquess of Blandford, on June 17th, 1830; in which he prayed the appointment of fit and competent persons for the digestment and simplification of, or, in the emphatical language of Lord Bacon, for “the choice and tender business of reducing and harmonizing,” the hybrid and confused state of the law. As he justly said, “no useful and beneficial amendment or amelioration can reasonably be expected; but the Statute Book will still continue to be disgraced with enactments which will be at variance with common sense, the first principles of justice, and even nullify the intent and purport of the enactments themselves, while the concoction of laws is entrusted to others than persons endowed with a spirit of comprehensive knowledge, great enlightenment, enlarged and liberal understandings, and who are acquainted with the nature of the subjects on which they presume to legislate.” The instances which that gentleman adduced in his well intended petition of “the great and singular blunders” as to “erroneous conclusions in the first principles of science,” committed by some of our law-makers are really amusing—if any honest man can derive amusement from his country’s injury and degradation.

[L] The addition of the farina or starch of the potato improves the bread, by counteracting its constipating effects, and by minutely dividing the particles of the flour during the fermentation; and for this reason its introduction into home-made bread would, as the author of “The Oracle of Health and Long Life,” says, be beneficial to health, as making it more nutritious and digestible.

[M] The remarks of the learned editors of the Monthly Gazette of Health, Nos. 160 and 162, are so much to the purpose, and so deserving of diffusion among all ranks and classes of the community, on the exhibition of the jew pedlars, the “groundly learned physicians,” the “Doctors” J. and C. Jordan, “physicians to the West London Medical Establishment,” and “proprietors of the celebrated Balsam of Rackasiri,” and the celebrated “Salutary Detersive Drops,” as the vagabonds impudently and unblushingly style themselves and their nostrums; and their redoubtable champion “Mr. Counsellor Bluster,” that I cannot do a greater service to the cause of truth and honesty and the discomfiture of roguery of all descriptions, than to refer my readers to those numbers of that work.

[N] These “Hebrew” Jewish knaves having at length been driven from their strong-hold of delusion, and finding their trade of imposture in the “balsam” rapidly declining through the patriotic exertions of “the heroic Miss May” and the Editors of the Monthly Gazette of Health, have had recourse to a new source of fraud and villainy, “the celebrated Salutary Detersive Drops”—and as the vermin have the unblushing audacity to designate their filth—a “most important discovery, which, by long study, deep research, and at great expence, they have, fortunately for the human race, brought to a degree of perfection which astonishes themselves!!!” and which “is a certain and speedy cure for all the most distressing diseases to which human nature is heir,” when administered “by their superior skill and judgment” and sanctioned “by their high character and situation in life!!” And the impious and blasphemous wretches invoke the Great God of Nature “that he who has the power of doing all things” may further their villainous and murderous designs! But it is some consolation, though the government of the country may be silent and indifferent lookers-on to “doings” so nefarious and diabolical, that there are hearts that feel indignant at the wickedness and imposture of adventurers and monsters in iniquity, whom the ignorance of mankind in the principles of life and the science of medicine has, as Dr. Morrison justly says in Medicine No Mystery, “enabled to possess palaces bought and constructed with the treasures and blood of their victims.”

[O] That the ignorant, the thoughtless, and the “fashionable,” should become the dopes of mountebank-imposture is not much to be wondered at; but that persons of respectability and character, the heads of the Church and of the State, (I have not yet ascertained that that sly old beldam “The Law” has stupified herself so much as to lend her countenance to the imposture,) should give their sanction and support, and endanger their health and lives, by either patronizing or using the deleterious compounds of mountebanks, and thus becoming the dupes of the most groveling imposture and the vilest quackery, cannot really be reasonably accounted for. The old worm-mountebank in Long Acre boasts that he has a list of fifteen hundred “Clergymen” who can give testimony of the virtues of his nostrums. The miraculous powers of Barclay’s Antibilious Pills, Ching’s Worm Lozenges, and some other articles in the list of quack medicines, are attested by some “Right Reverend Fathers in God!” Nor was that notorious and impudent mountebank “le Docteur” James Graham, who cured patients by only breathing the air of his “Apollo” hall or chamber in the Adelphi, which was always impregnated (as he said) with celestial Æther and influences, without noble and reverend patrons. But the consummation of dupery was most powerfully displayed in the case of the old New England quack, Cherokee Whitlaw. In the case of this Yankee quondam gardener, “Royals” (as well of native as of foreign breed), “right honourables,” “reverends,” “SENATORS,” and even some gentle “ladyships,” were his patrons, and those of his mountebank-asylum at Bayswater, and the recommenders of his “American Herb Extracts,” which were a compound of cabbage water, treacle, turpentine, and Epsom salts, and for a pint of which the canting old varlet was barefaced enough to demand eight shillings in lawful British specie, though the cost price of the mixture did not exceed three half-pence-farthing. But it is a lamentable fact, as Dr. Morrison observes in his well-intentioned little work, entitled “Medicine No Mystery,” that in nineteen cases out of twenty (and this, he emphatically remarks, is the proportion that ignorance bears to knowledge,) the charlatan, with his mysterious phrases and gestures, is more sought after and more prized than the accomplished and experienced physician; “so much of the leaven of the old idea of the connexion between physic and occult and mysterious sciences still subsists,—of those days when physicians pretended to judge of their patients’ diseases by seeing their urine; when the stars were consulted before a dose of physic was taken; when the king’s evil was supposed to be cured by royal touch; when women flocked to surround the body of the executed criminal, and rubbed his hands to their breasts as a cure for cancer or epilepsy, &c.”

The mock philanthropy of the contemptible quack Whitlaw, and the blasphemous, the monstrously blasphemous and diabolical effrontery of the conventicle and meeting pulpit-charlatans, (the vile tools of harpyism and religious knavery,) who puffed off this “threadbare juggler’s” disgusting impostures by an odious comparison of his selfish and detestable tricks with the enlarged and godlike benevolence and charity of the Saviour of mankind, deserve the severest reprobation and chastisement, though sanctioned by the weak and culpable patronage of royals, nobles, statesmen, M.P.’s, and divines, and swallowed by the gaping mouths of the ignorant,—of foolish women, and half witted men. But of the two species of imposture, the pulpit charlatanry of ignorant and selfish empirics is the most disgusting. The diabolical farces of those wolves in sheep’s clothing—their ignorant and designing perversion of the plain practical morality laid down by the Saviour of mankind in the gospel,—the brain-turning and mind-deranging fanaticism they inculcate, and which they profanely and audaciously call soul-searching and sinner-awakening doctrines, and other like unmeaning and abominable stuff which they inculcate under the evident chieftainship of the devil, loudly demands some legislative interference. It has been well observed, that though the benign spirit of toleration has permitted religious empiricism—though folly and ignorance have countenanced medical quackery and imposture—and though there are persons weak enough to entrust their lives and health, as well as their moral and religious instruction, to enthusiastic cobblers and tailors; yet considering the strange infatuation of mankind, and the proneness of human nature to delusion and imposture, it is the duty of every wise and paternal government to protect the weak and uninformed from the designs of the devil’s agents, who, in order to practise their selfish villanies on their unsuspecting victims, become, to use the words of Dr. Robertson the historian, “outrageously Christian” in their professions.

[P] The impolitic and monstrously inconsistent patent medicine act, which legalizes and sanctions and promotes the sale of quack poisons, has no doubt annually been the unweeting cause of more murders, than the joint influence of typhus, small-pox, and consumption. The tax or stamp-duty on this odious and destructive trash was, no doubt, at the time of its imposition, intended as a prevention of the evil which it contemplated to suppress. But this is one of the consequences of short-sighted and vicious legislation, and of the entrusting of the concoction of the laws to incompetent persons—in the emphatic phrase of the most eloquent of human tongues, mere ita lex scripta est lawyers—men who make a boast of never having read, or who have had but little or no opportunity of reading any other kind of books than their musty, ill-written, badly digested law-books; such as certain “learned gentlemen,” of prodigiously scholar-like and scientific attainments—men, whom the Times Newspaper has justly characterised by the style and title of “The Mindless;” and who contrive by the arts of “huggery” and favouritism to deprive the public of the benefits to be derived from the talents of men of “high classical and literary, and even legal attainments,” and of the most enlarged and enlightened philosophy, but who scorn to court the favour of those in power and “high places” by mean and dirty practices.

[Q] This kind of doctrine will, no doubt, be unpalatable in a certain quarter, and the productiveness to the exchequer of the disgraceful revenue arising from the pest, will be adduced as an argument for its continuance. But it is to be hoped, as Mr. J. D. Williams said in his meritorious petition to the Commons House of Parliament on that subject, that the health of the public will be held superior to any such consideration. The lottery, no doubt, brought into the state-coffers a considerable revenue; but as it was found to undermine and ruin the morals of the community, it was abolished. And the persons at the head of the government at the time have the thanks and gratitude of every true friend of his country for the act. Surely the health of the public is entitled to the same provision.

[R] The whole farrago of quack or patent medicines is destructive of health and life, whether cordial or vegetable balsams, tinctures, syrups, or elixirs,—pectoral or antiscorbutic drops, bile or antibilious pills, tonic or digestive wines, balms of gilead, guestonian embrocations, Leake’s pillula salutaria, and a thousand other poisonous and life-destroying trash. Thousands upon thousands of children under three years of age are consigned yearly to the tomb in London alone, by means of the soothing or vegetable syrups, the infants’ balms, the worm-cakes, the anodyne necklaces, Godfrey’s cordial, Daffy’s elixir, Dalby’s carminative, apothecaries’ draughts and powders, and other infernal recipes; which, if they do not cause immediate death, occasion fits, convulsions, fevers, excruciating gripes, palsy, and often confirmed idiotcy. Gowland’s lotion, the kalydors, the macassar oils, the cosmetiques royales, the red and white olympian dews, the blooms, the various hair dyes, &c. have not only robbed many a female of her charms and loveliness, but have even produced severe pains of the bowels and of the brain, have occasioned convulsions, and laid the foundation of those diseases which have deprived the victims of life itself. The folly of depending for cure or relief upon the “gout extractors,” “the metallic tractors,” “animal magnetism,” and “signatures,” has been at length exploded; it is therefore unnecessary to say a word on the subject.

[S] The audacity of this fellow exceeds, if possible, the unblushing and incorrigible effrontery of the other impostors. He undertakes to cure all kinds of diseases without any kind of medicine; and he asserts that all difficult surgical operations can be superseded by merely taking a sup or two of his delectable compound of combustibles. According to the modest pretensions of this exotic esculapius, he obtained the knowledge of physic and the power of subduing disease, by intuition or inspiration: he had no need to learn: there was no period of infancy in his medical attainments; he at once attained the highest point and full maturity of medical and chirurgical knowledge! Was there ever a more audacious piece of imposture attempted to be palmed upon the credulity of the most credulous of mortals, Mr. Bull and his progeny? But perhaps the philippics of this gaunt-looking “hygeist” against surgery and anatomy may produce some good. It is true that to a certain degree, those arts should be esteemed and cherished; but after the allowance of suitable consideration, they should fall into their proper rank, with wholesome restrictions. Both the arts are overrated in point of real utility. Were a knowledge of the living laws of the human frame more inculcated by medical professors than is the case, it would be found of more essential service than all the coxcombry of the present day respecting surgical distinctions and anatomical dissections. In many complaints, indeed, in the principal part to which the human frame is subject, the inutility of dissection is well known to every well informed man. But the assumption of the title of “Surgeon,” and the false importance (not to mention the legal security which it affords against prosecution, and the facility of exemption from examination of competency,) it gives the claimant in the estimation of the ignorant part of mankind, have contributed largely to the propagation of the erroneous notions which are so anxiously disseminated on the subject. Though it would be fruitless to attempt to expose this popular folly of the day, (which like all other follies or fashions will “have its rage” until its own enormity cures itself,) yet “it is some consolation to reflect that in another age a more successful practice of medicine will diminish the false estimation in which surgical foppery is now held; when to save a limb will be deemed a superior exertion of skill to its amputation.”

Nor is the other branch (namely, that which was once designated by the now exploded and unfashionable title of apothecary) free from reprehension. Those “sons of the pestle and mortar,” whose money-interest induces them rather to encourage disease than to subdue it, as the longer they keep the patient in hand, the greater number of phials, pill-boxes, gallipots, draughts and powders they will be entitled to charge for, are so wedded to routine, that they can seldom bring themselves to lay aside the lumber and unmeaning farrago of materia medicas, pharmacopoeias, &c. Their prejudices and pertinacity in favour of received opinions and established usage are so blind and inveterate, that they will never allow themselves to have recourse to the simple remedies which Nature points out: all must be mystery, complication, and conformity to etiquette with them: to lead nature by simple means would be unprofessional; to practise “secundum artem,” she must be driven by powerful remedies, as blue pill, or some active chemical preparation; and they must bring into play in the simplest ailment to which the human frame is subject that huge mass of disjointed practices and experiments, which is held together by no order, and is not capable of any satisfactory application, or even elucidation. On this subject, the remarks of the editor of the Monthly Gazette of Health are so deserving of observation, that I cannot deny myself the advantage of enriching my pages with them.

That learned gentleman (who has contributed more to the exposure of quackery and imposture than any writer of the age) having introduced to the notice of his readers Dr. Mackie’s communication of the medicinal virtues of the Guaco plant in cases of hydrophobia among the Indians of South America, closes his information with the following striking remarks:

“The mode of treating diseases which is generally adopted by the native practitioners of South America, and the East Indies, by decoctions, infusions, and the expressed juices of vegetable productions, has, at any rate, that great recommendation—simplicity; but, contemptible as it may appear to be to the practitioners of this country, who suppose that no disease can be successfully combated without blue pill or calomel, or some active mineral or vegetable poison, agreeable to some favourite theory, it often proves successful; and, indeed, from the information which we have received from the intelligent gentlemen who have spent some years among the natives of South America and the East Indies, (some of them members of the medical profession,) we are disposed to believe that in some diseases, particularly scorbutic and scrofulous affections, and those termed pseudo-syphilitic, the native surgeons are more successful than the practitioners of this country. To us, the great difference between the practice of the former and that of the latter appears to be, that the one lead nature by simple means, which enable her to correct the constitution, and to produce a healthy process of mutation in a diseased part, whilst the other drive nature by powerful remedies, as blue pill, or some active chemical preparation. Often have we witnessed the recovery of patients, who had been discharged from a hospital, under the simple treatment by decoction of an apparently simple vegetable, and by fomentations under the direction of an old woman; and whoever considers how simple the operations of nature are, will not be surprised that such treatment should succeed even in a formidable chronic disease. Every practitioner of experience and observation will, we think, admit that many thousand invalids are annually hurried to their graves in this metropolis, by persevering in the use of calomel and blue pill, or a drastic purgative, who might have been cured, or whose lives might have been prolonged many years, by a mild alterative treatment; and that many a limb might have been saved by a mild topical treatment of the local diseases, which has been consigned to the knife. In cases of internal acute disease, or active inflammation of a vital part, a decisive treatment is absolutely necessary to save life; but in chronic diseases, attempts by potent remedies to drive nature but too often distract her. To the new theory of chronic inflammation, or ulceration of the mucous membrane of some part of the alimentary canal, thousands have already been sacrificed.”

[T] The disgusting practice of having one’s hands and eyes polluted at every corner of a street with the abominable bills and placards of the quacking vermin, is past endurance, and loudly calls for suppression.

September 1, 1832.

PRACTICAL BOOKS
ON
Sporting Subjects,
BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT OF LIVE STOCK,
VETERINARY PRACTICE, AND ON RURAL AFFAIRS,
PRINTED FOR
SHERWOOD, GILBERT, & PIPER,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.

JOHNSON’S SPORTSMAN’S DICTIONARY.

Just published, in One large Volume, Octavo, illustrated with numerous highly-finished and emblematical Engravings, price £1:11:6, bound in cloth,

A NEW AND ORIGINAL WORK,
ENTITLED THE
SPORTSMAN’S CYCLOPÆDIA;

Being an Elucidation of the Science and Practice of the Field, the Turf, and the Sod; or, in other Words, the Scientific Operations of the Chase, the Course, and of all those Diversions and Amusements which have uniformly marked the British Character; and which are so ardently cherished, and so extensively followed, by the present Generation: comprehending the Natural History of all those Animals which are the Objects of Pursuit, accompanied with illustrative Anecdotes.

BY T. B. JOHNSON,
Author of the Shooter’s Companion, &c. &c.

In offering the present work to the Sporting World, the Publishers do not deem any apology necessary, as there is no Book on sale professedly of a similar character, nor one that will furnish a Sportsman with that information which he may desire on the various Field Sports of the present day.

Under such circumstances, the Publishers conceive that a “Sportsman’s CyclopÆdia” will be not only acceptable to those who follow the Hounds, pursue the Feathered Tribes, frequent the Lake, or the Stream, or attend the Course, but also to the Public in general.

They, therefore, honestly and fearlessly assert that the Author and Compiler of it is a well-known Sportsman, who has made the various subjects of the book the business of his life, and whose practical knowledge of Field Amusements, in its various ramifications, is uniformly acknowledged. Nor have they spared either pains or expense in the Printing or the Embellishments which illustrate and adorn the Work; their object being to produce, not merely a Book of General Reference, but a complete Sportsman’s Library.

This Work is elegantly printed on Fine Paper, and illustrated with numerous highly-finished and emblematical Engravings, executed in the most characteristic Style of Excellence by those eminent Artists,

• LANDSEER,
• COOPER,
• LAPORTE,
• BARRENGER,
• CLENNEL,
• BROOKE,
• HERRING,
• FIELDING,
• SCOTT,
• GREIG,
• WESTLEY,
• ELMER,
• WEBB,
• ROBERTS,
• &c. &c.

It is presumed that the alphabetical Arrangement of the Work will afford every facility to the Reader, and that it will be found to contain—

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE, in all its Ramifications; the most approved System of Grooming (particularly of the Hunter) and Stable Management, with copious Notices of the Diseases to which he is liable, and the most judicious Mode of treating them.

THE WHOLE ART OF HORSEMANSHIP; or, the SCIENCE OF RIDING.

THE DOG, in all his Varieties, with his Diseases and Manner of Cure, and Instructions for Breeding, Breaking, or Training Him for the different Pursuits; with Directions for entering Hounds.

HUNTING the Fox, Hare, Stag, &c. and the Nature of Scent, as exemplified in their Pursuit; also, particular Notices of various Packs of Hounds. The various kinds of Pointers and Setters, and the Method of Breeding those best calculated for the Sportsman.

THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF SHOOTING FLYING, as well as every Information relative to the Use of the Fowling Piece.

COURSING, with Notices of celebrated Greyhounds; and the most judicious Plan of Breeding these interesting Animals.

THE RACE COURSE, with its Operations, in all their Varieties; of Breeding the Racer, of Training Him, &c. &c. with particular Notices of the most distinguished Running Horses.

THE COCK PIT, and Management of Game Cocks.

THE WHOLE ART OF ANGLING AND FISHING in all their different Forms, &c. &c.

? For the accommodation of the public, the Sportsman’s CyclopÆdia may be had in Twelve Parts, by one or more at a time, price 2s. 6d. each. The whole Work forms One large Volume in Octavo, closely printed, and contains as much matter as five ordinary sized Volumes.

Coursing.

THE COURSER’S COMPANION; or, a Practical Treatise on the Laws of the Leash, with the defects of the old Laws considered; and a New Code proposed, with Explanatory Notes. By an Experienced Courser. Price 5s. Boards.

“Though small in size, this book is great in value; the author’s name, Mr. Thomas Thacker, of Derby, who is an old Courser, and which is a passport to it, is too modestly kept back. To real sportsmen, who read for solid information, the volume will exhibit unquestionable proofs of being thoroughly practical on the subject of Coursing.” Sporting Mag.

Osmer on Horses.

A TREATISE ON THE DISEASES AND LAMENESS. OF HORSES; in which is laid down the proper Method of Shoeing the different Kinds of Feet: whereunto are added, some New Observations on the Art of Farriery, chiefly as relate to Wounds, to Epidemic Distemper, to Surgical Operations, to Debility, to Tumours, &c. Also, on the Nature and Difference in the Breeds of Horses.

By William Osmer, Veterinary Surgeon and Shoeing Smith.

Fifth Edition, newly re-written, with considerable Additions, and a Treatise on Debility, &c. &c. By John Hinds, V.S. Author of the Groom’s Oracle, Veterinary Surgery, and Practice of Medicine.

? “Osmer’s Treatise on the Horse, by J. Hinds, is among the most valuable of our recent publications. This and Mr. Hinds’ ‘Grooms’ Oracle’ ought to be in the possession of every Gentleman, who either has in possession, or has a chance of possessing, the noble animal to whose proper treatment the Author has directed his enlightened researches.”—Taunton Courier.

Thompson on Riding.

RULES FOR BAD HORSEMEN; Hints to Inexpert Travellers; and Maxims worth Remembering by the most experienced Equestrians. By Charles Thompson, Esq. A new Edition, with modern Additions, by John Hinds, V.S. Editor of Osmer’s Treatise on the Horse; Author of the Groom’s Oracle, &c. Price 3s. 6d.

Hinds’ and White’s Farriery Improved.

A COMPENDIOUS POCKET-MANUAL of the VETERINARY ART; being a Practical Description of the true Symptoms and most rational Treatment of all Diseases incident to the Horse; adapted to the ready comprehension of every class of Horsemen, viz. Owners, Farriers, Farmers, Horsekeepers, Grooms, and Lads. Comprising all that has been usefully said by various Authors. Revised and corrected, with considerable important modern Improvements, by John Hinds, V.S. and Others. With illustrative Plates, price 5s.

? The design of this multum in parvo volume has been to compress into a small portable manual as large a quantity of really important useful matter as usually occupies works of much greater magnitude, whilst adding thereto all the new discoveries in the art. This has been accomplished by a strict economy in printing, by a singularly terse style of writing, and the rigid rejection of numerous superfluities. By these means several new modes of practice, and valuable Veterinary observations, have been introduced—principally as regards Constitutional disorders—the Epidemic Distemper of 1832—Inflammation of the organs of life—Tumours—Liver complaints—Debility—Disorders of the Eyes—Crib-biting—Lameness—Bleeding—Physicking—Blistering—Surfeits—and the signs by which to ascertain what illness at any time impends over the ailing Horse.

THE GAMEKEEPER’S DIRECTORY, AND COMPLETE VERMIN DESTROYER, containing easy, but efficacious, Instructions for the Preservation of Game, as exemplified in the Mode of Managing it, particularly during the Breeding Season. Of Hatching the Eggs of Pheasants and Partridges which have been mown over, and the best method of Rearing the Young. Also for taking or killing all kinds of Vermin, as exemplified in the Mode of Trapping and Destroying them. By T. B. Johnson, Author of the Sportsman’s CyclopÆdia, Shooter’s Companion, &c. Price 5s. 6d.

Brown on Horse-Racing.

THE TURF EXPOSITOR; containing the Origin of Horse-Racing, Breeding for the Turf, Training, Trainers, Jockeys; Cocktails, and the System of Cocktail Racing illustrated; the Turf and its Abuses; the Science of betting Money, so as always to come off a Winner, elucidated by a variety of Examples; the Rules and Laws of Horse-racing; and every other Information connected with the Operations of the Turf. By C. F. Brown. Price 6s. boards.

Brown’s Anecdotes of Horses.

In a thick Volume, royal 18mo. containing Fourteen Portraits of celebrated Horses, &c. engraved on Steel, Price 10s. 6d. cloth.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND AUTHENTIC ANECDOTES OF HORSES, and the Allied Species.

By Captain Thomas Brown, F.L.S. M.R.P.S. M.K.S. &c. &c.

“We have now before us the pleasing fruit of Captain Brown’s labour and investigation. Setting out with the early history of the horse, and tracing it to the present period, the author next goes through the various breeds, and finally enlivens the whole with the accounts of feats and other memorabilia, which are well calculated to astonish and amuse.”—London Literary Gazette.

“Captain Brown’s work is an entertaining and instructive miscellany. Pleasanter gossip than that of horses we do not know, and richer food for it cannot be found, than in this volume.”—Spectator.

“Those who have any relish for this noble animal—any wish to know its history and habits—will find all they want in Captain Brown’s book. There are nine excellent plates, and nearly 600 pages of letter-press.”—New North Briton.

“With Captain Brown’s delightful volume of ‘Anecdotes of Horses,’ just issued, every one who crosses a saddle ought to be intimate.”—Glasgow Free Press.

Conversations on Conditioning.

THE GROOM’S ORACLE, AND POCKET STABLE DIRECTORY; in which the Management of Horses generally, as to Health, Dieting, and Exercise are considered, in a Series of Familiar Dialogues between two Grooms engaged in Training Horses to their Work, as well for the Road as the Chase and Turf. With an Appendix, including the Receipt-Book of John Hinds, V.S. Second Edition, considerably improved, embellished with an elegant Frontispiece, painted by S. Aiken, price 7s. cloth.

? This enlarged edition of the “Groom’s Oracle” contains a good number of new points connected with training prime horses; and the owners of working cattle, also, will find their profit in consulting the practical remarks that are applicable to their teams; on the principle that health preserved is better than disease removed.

Blaine’s Farriery.

OUTLINES OF THE VETERINARY ART; or, a TREATISE on the ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY, and CURATIVE TREATMENT of the DISEASES of the HORSE, and, subordinately, of those of Neat Cattle and Sheep. Illustrated by Surgical and Anatomical Plates. By Delabere Blaine.

The Fourth Edition, considerably improved and increased by the introduction of many new and important Subjects, both in the Foreign British practices of the art, and by the addition of some new Figures. Price 1l. 4s. cloth, and lettered.

Girard on the Age of the Horse.

A TREATISE ON THE TEETH OF THE HORSE; showing its Age by the Changes the Teeth undergo, from a Foal up to Twenty-Three Years Old, especially after the Eighth Year. Translated from the French by M. Girard, Director of the Royal Veterinary School at Alford, by T. J. Ganly, V.S. 11th Light Dragoons. Price 3s. 6d. or, with the Plates coloured, 4s. 6d. boards.

? This work is strongly recommended by Professor Coleman, in his Lectures to the attention of persons studying the Veterinary Profession; and who may wish to be well acquainted with the Horse’s Age.

“The above useful Treatise is calculated to be of considerable service, in the present state of our knowledge. We recommend the work to the Amateur, the Practitioner, and the Veterinary Student.”—Lancet.

A Complete Manual for Sportsmen.

BRITISH FIELD SPORTS; embracing Practical Instructions in Shooting, Hunting, Coursing, Racing, Fishing, &c.; with Observations on the Breaking and Training of Dogs and Horses; also, the Management of Fowling-pieces, and all other Sporting Implements. By William Henry Scott.

? This Work is beautifully printed, on fine paper, and illustrated with upwards of Fifty highly-finished Engravings, Thirty-four on Copper, executed in the most characteristic style of excellence, by those Eminent Artists, Scott, Warren, Greig, Tookey, Davenport, Ranson, and Webb, from Paintings by Reinagle, Clennell, Elmer, and Barrenger; the remainder cut on Wood, by Clennell, Thompson, Austin, and Bewick. The author’s object has been, to present, in as compressed a form as real utility would admit, Instructions in all the various Field Sports in Modem Practice; thereby forming a Book of General Reference on the subject, and including in one volume, what could not otherwise be obtained without purchasing many and expensive ones.—In demy 8vo. Price 1l. 18s. or, in royal 8vo. 3l. 3s. boards.

“It gives us pleasure to observe the respectability of the Work entitled ‘British Field Sports.’ In this kingdom, the Sports of the Field are highly characteristic and interesting: as gentlemanly diversions they have been pursued with an avidity as keen, and a taste as universal, as the relish of Nature’s beauties: a corresponding value is set on them, and an appropriate polish is added by time and practice: the various minutiÆ in the knowledge of which and the technical distribution of this knowledge, together with Facts, Instructions, and Anecdotes, form the basis of this valuable publication.”—Farmers’ Journal.

Laporte’s Horse.

THE CONFORMATION AND PROPORTIONS OF A HORSE, with the Terms generally made use of to denote his various Parts, engraved from an Original Painting of G. H. Laporte, Esq. size 10 Inches by 8. Price 1s. 6d. accurately coloured.

Johnson on Hunting.

THE HUNTING DIRECTORY; containing a compendious View of the Ancient and Modern Systems of the Chase; the Method of Breeding and Managing the various kinds of Hounds, particularly Foxhounds; their Diseases, with a certain Cure for the Distemper. The pursuit of the Fox, the Hare, the Stag, &c. The nature of Scent considered and elucidated. Also, Notices of the Wolf and Boar Hunting in France; with a variety of illustrative observations. By T. B. Johnson, Author of the Shooter’s Companion. Printed in 8vo. price 9s. boards.

JOHNSON’S SHOOTER’S ANNUAL PRESENT.

Just Published, Third Edition, very considerably Improved, and Illustrated with numerous Cuts. Price 9s. bound in Cloth.

THE SHOOTER’S COMPANION; or, a Description of Pointers and Setters, &c. as well as of those Animals which constitute the Objects of Pursuit; of the Breeding of Pointers and Setters, the Diseases to which they are liable, and the Modes of Cure. Training Dogs for the Gun. Of Scent, and the Reason why one Dog’s Sense of Smell is superior to another’s. The Fowling Piece fully considered, particularly as it relates to the use of Percussion Powder. Of Percussion Powder, and the best Method of making it. Of Gunpowder. Shooting Illustrated; and the Art of Shooting Flying or Running, simplified and clearly laid down. Of Wild Fowl and Fen Shooting; as well as every information connected with the use of the Fowling Piece. The Game Laws familiarly explained and illustrated. By T. B. Johnson.

“This is a well-written and well-arranged production; containing much interesting information, not only to the professed sportsman, but to those who may occasionally seek this fascinating recreation. It is not the production of any ordinary sportsman, but of one who can enjoy the pleasures of the library as well as those of the field.”—Literary Chronicle.

“We now take leave of the work, recommending it, in comparison with most others on the same subject, as luminous to a degree; and reflecting on the talents, experience, and feeling of the author, the highest credit.”—Sporting Magazine.

Blaine on the Diseases of Dogs.

CANINE PATHOLOGY; or, a Description of the DISEASES of DOGS, Nosologically Arranged, with their Causes, Symptoms, and Curative Treatment; and a copious Detail of the Rabid Malady: preceded by a Sketch of the Natural History of the Dog, his Varieties and Qualities; with practical Directions on the Breeding, Rearing, and salutary Treatment of these Animals. Third Edition, Revised, Corrected, and Improved. Price 9s. boards. By Delabere Blaine.

Stevenson’s Cattle Doctor.

THE SPORTSMAN’S, FARMER’S, AND CATTLE-DOCTOR’S VADE MECUM, containing Practical Hints and Receipts for preventing and curing the most prevalent Diseases of BLACK OR NEAT CATTLE, SHEEP, DOGS, HORSES, PIGS, &c. with a very copious List of the most valuable Veterinary Medicines and the manner of preparing them for Animals of every Description. By John Stevenson, Esq. Price 5s.

Lawrence on Live Stock.

A GENERAL TREATISE ON CATTLE—THE OX, SHEEP, AND SWINE; comprehending their Breeding, Management, Improvement, and Diseases; with Remedies for Cure. By John Lawrence, Author of the “New Farmer’s Calendar.” Second Edition. In one large vol. 8vo price 12s. boards.

“If the Author had not already recommended himself to the Public by his ‘New Farmer’s Calendar,’ and other works, the judicious observations and useful hints here offered would place him in the list of those rural counsellors who are capable of giving advice, and to whose opinion some deference is due. His sentiments on general subjects expand beyond the narrow boundaries of vulgar prejudice; and his good sense is forcibly recommended to us by its acting in concert with a humane disposition.”—Monthly Review.

Mr. James White, in his work on Veterinary Medicine, says, “Mr. Lawrence’s General Treatise on Cattle, the Ox, the Sheep, and the Swine,” ought to be in every one’s hands, who is interested in the subject.

LAWRENCE’S PHILOSOPHICAL AND PRACTICAL TREATISE ON HORSES; comprehending the Choice, Management, Purchase and Sale of every Description of the Horse, the Improved Method of Shoeing, Medical Prescriptions, and Surgical Treatment in all known Diseases. Third Edition; with large Additions on the Breeding and Improvement of the Horse, the Dangers of our present Travelling System, &c. In 2 vol. price £1:1:0, boards.

By the same Author,

1. THE NEW FARMER’S CALENDAR; or, MONTHLY REMEMBRANCER OF ALL KINDS OF COUNTRY BUSINESS. Fifth Edition, with Additions. In 1 vol. large 8vo. price 12s. boards.

2. THE MODERN LAND STEWARD; in which the Duties and Functions of Stewardship are considered and explained, with its several Relations to the Interest of the Landlord, Tenant, and the Public. In 1 vol. price 10s. 6d. boards.

HINTS TO DAIRY FARMERS; being an Account of the Food and extraordinary Produce of a Cow; with economical and easy Rules for rearing Calves. By W. Cramp. Second Edition. Price 2s.

THE GRAZIER’S READY RECKONER; or, A USEFUL GUIDE FOR BUYING AND SELLING CATTLE; being a complete Set of Tables, distinctly pointing out the Weight of Black Cattle, Sheep, and Swine, from Three to One Hundred and Thirty Stones, by Measurement; with Directions showing the particular Parts where the Cattle are to be measured. By George Renton, Farmer. Eighth Edition, corrected. Price 2s. 6d.

SCOTT’S DELINEATIONS OF THE HORSE AND DOG.

Beautifully printed in 4to. embellished with Forty highly-finished Copper-Plate Engravings, and numerous Wood-Cuts, Part I. and II. price 5s. each, of

THE SPORTSMAN’S REPOSITORY, comprising a Series of highly-finished Engravings, representing the Horse and the Dog, in all their Varieties, accompanied with a Comprehensive Historical and Systematic Description of the different Species of each, their appropriate uses, Management, Improvement, &c.; interspersed with interesting Anecdotes of the most celebrated Horses and Dogs, and their owners; likewise a great Variety of Practical Information on Training, and the Amusements of the Field. By the Author of “British Field-Sports.”

It would be difficult to imagine any selection from the great storehouse of Nature more likely to merit general attention, or to excite general interest, than the one to which we now invite Public Notice. Of all the animals in Creation, (with the exception of those which minister to our carnivorous appetites,) it would be impossible to name two which are so intimately associated with our wants, our pleasures, and our attachments, as the Horse and the Dog. To the former we are indebted for the power of transporting ourselves from place to place, with speed and comfort, and for the means of participating in the manly and healthful Sports of the Field; while the labours of Agriculture, and the pursuits of Commerce, are no less indebted to it for increased activity and productiveness.

But it is not on this ground alone that it aspires to patronage. It takes a wider range, and, by including in its design, the history, the qualities, and the different breeds of the Dog—that half-reasoning friend and companion of man—it enlarges its claims to general reception. Who is there that has not, at some period of his life, acknowledged the influence of an attachment between himself and his dog? Who is there that does not recognize in this faithful, vigilant, sagacious, humble, and silent friend, the possessor of qualities, which are not always to be found in the human and more talkative friend?

It is only necessary further to observe, that the literary execution and graphic embellishment of this work are not unworthy of the subjects delineated. With respect to the latter, the Proprietors confidently anticipate that the names of the Artists employed are a sufficient guarantee; while the former is the production of an experienced Sportsman.

The following are the Subjects of the Plates which embellish the Sportsman’s Repository:—

Horses.

• 1.—Godolphin Arabian, the Property of Lord Godolphin.
• 2.—Arabian, the Property of the Right Hon. Henry Wellesley.
• 3.—Eclipse and Shakspeare, two celebrated Racers.
• 4.—King Herod and Flying Childers, the Property of the Duke of Devonshire.
• 5.—Stallion, Jupiter, the Property of Lieut.-Col. Thornton.
• 6.—Charger, the Property of Major-General Warde.
• 7.—Hunter, Duncombe, the Property of George Treacher, Esq.
• 8.—Racer, Eleanor, the Property of Sir Charles Banbury, Bart.
• 9.—Hackney, Roan Billy.
• 10.—Coach-Horse, the Property of Henry Villebois, Esq.
• 11.—Cart-Horse, Dumpling, the Property of Messrs. Horne and Devey.
• 12.—Ponies, Shetland, Forester, and Welsh, the Property of Jacob Wardell, Esq.
• 13.—A Mule, the Property of Lord Holland—and an Ass.

Dogs.

• 1. Shepherd’s Dog.
• 2. Newfoundland Dog.
• 3. Greenland Dog.
• 4. Pointer.
• 5. Spanish Pointer.
• 6. Setter.
• 7. Springer.
• 8. Water Spaniel.
• 9. Stag Hound.
• 10. Fox Hounds.
• 11. Greyhound.
• 12. Irish Greyhound.
• 13. Italian Greyhound.
• 14. Blood Hound.
• 15. Southern Hound.
• 16. Beagles.
• 17. Harrier.
• 18. Terriers.
• 19. Lurcher.
• 20. Water Dog.
• 21. Bull Dog.
• 22. Mastiff.
• 23. Dalmatian.
• 24. Pugs.
• 25. Bloodhound’s Head.
• 26. Portraits of Five Stag Hounds, of the Hatfield Hunt.
• 27. Alpine Mastiff.

The Work complete comprehends Ten Parts, price 5s. each: or with Proof Impressions of the Plates on India Paper, price 7s. 6d. forming a splendid Volume in Quarto—price £2:12:6, in Boards, or with the Plates on India Paper, price £4, neatly Half-bound, Russia, the whole illustrated with Forty Copper-plates, all engraved in the Line manner by Mr. John Scott and Mr. Thomas Landseer, from Original Paintings by those eminent Animal Painters, Marshall, Reinagle, Gilpin, Stubbs, Cooper, and Edwin Landseer. They are executed in the very first style of excellence, and may justly be considered as chefs d’oeuvres in the Art. Every species of the Horse and Dog is comprised in the Collection; and the Proprietors do not hesitate to challenge a similar Exhibition in the whole Sporting World.

For the accommodation of Admirers of the Fine Arts, and Gentlemen forming a Cabinet Collection of Sporting Pictures, a limited number of Impressions is taken off, for the purpose of Framing, or, for the Portfolio; any of which may be had separately. Price of the Proofs, on India Paper, 4s. and Prints, 2s. each.

TEN MINUTES’ ADVICE TO EVERY PERSON GOING TO PURCHASE A HORSE. By John Bell. Price 1s.

THE GENTLEMAN’S POCKET FARRIER; showing how to use a Horse on a Journey. By John Bell. Price 1s.

SPORTING ANECDOTES, including numerous Characteristic portraits of Persons in every Walk of Life, who have acquired Notoriety from their Achievements on the Turf, at the Table, and in the Diversions of the Field; the whole forming a complete Delineation of the Sporting World. By Pierce Egan. New Edition, with coloured Plates and Illustrations, price 12s. in boards.

THE SPORTSMAN’S PROGRESS; a Poem; Descriptive of the Pleasures derived from Field Sports. Illustrated with Thirteen appropriate Cuts. Price 1s.

THE ANGLER; a Poem, in Ten Cantos; comprising Proper Instructions in the Art, with Rules to choose Fishing-rods, Lines, Hooks, Floats, Baits, and to make Artificial Flies, Receipts for Pastes, &c. By T. P. Lathy, Esq. With upwards of Twenty Wood-cuts. Price 8s. boards.

SONGS OF THE CHACE; or, SPORTSMAN’S VOCAL LIBRARY; containing nearly Four Hundred of the best Songs relating to Racing, Shooting, Angling, Hawking, Archery, &c. Handsomely printed in foolscap 8vo. with appropriate Embellishments. Second Edition. Price 9s. boards.

Dobson on Training the Spaniel or Pointer.

KUNOPÆDIA; being a Practical Essay on the Breaking and Training the English Spaniel or Pointer. To which are added, Instructions for attaining the Art of Shooting Flying; more immediately addressed to young Sportsmen, but designed also to supply the best means of correcting the errors of some older ones. By the late W. Dobson, Esq. of Eden-Hall, Cumberland. In One Volume, 8vo. Price 12s. boards.

Curtis on Grasses.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE BRITISH GRASSES, especially such as are best adapted to the laying down or improving of Meadows and Pastures: likewise an Enumeration of the British Grasses. By William Curtis, Author of the “Flora Londinensis,” &c. Sixth Edition, with considerable Additions. In 8vo. illustrated, with coloured Plates. Price 9s. in boards.

Skellet’s complete Cow-Doctor.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE BREEDING COW, AND EXTRACTION OF THE CALF, BEFORE AND AT THE TIME OF CALVING; in which the question of difficult Parturition is considered in all its bearings, with reference to facts and experience; including Observations on the Disease of Neat Cattle generally. Containing profitable Instructions to the Breeding Farmer, Cowkeeper, and Grazier, for attending to their own Cattle during Illness, according to the most approved modern Methods of Treatment, and the Application of long known and skilful Prescriptions and Remedies for every Disorder incident to Horned Cattle. The whole adapted to the present improved state of Veterinary Practice. Illustrated with Thirteen highly-finished Engravings. By Edward Skellett, Professor of that part of the Veterinary Art. Price 18s. plain, £1:7:0 coloured.

“We have now before us a work which will be found a very useful addition to the Farmers’ Library; it is communicated in a plain and familiar style, and is evidently the result of long experience and observation, made by a practical man; every person connected with Live Stock should be acquainted with its contents, but to the Veterinary Practitioner it is invaluable.”—Farmers’ Journal.

A Complete Farm-House Library.

In Two large Volumes, in Quarto, price Four Guineas in Boards, illustrated with upwards of One Hundred Engravings, (Thirty of which are coloured from Nature,) representing improved Implements, the various Grasses, and the principal Breeds of Sheep and Cattle, from Original Drawings,

A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE; including all the Modern Improvements and Discoveries, and the Result of all the Attention and Inquiry which have been bestowed on this important Science during the last Fifty years: the whole combining and explaining, fully and completely, the Principles and Practice of Modern Husbandry, in all its Branches and Relations. By R. W. Dickson, M.D. Honorary Member of the Board of Agriculture, &c. &c.

This Work includes the best Methods of Planting Timber of every Description, and the improved Management of Live Stock, with a Description of Implements and Buildings; the Theory of Soils and Manures; the best Methods of Inclosing, Embanking, Road-making, Draining, Fallowing, Irrigating, Paring, and Burning; the improved Cultivation of Arable Lands, and of all kinds of Grain, artificial Grasses, &c.; presenting the most useful and comprehensive Body of Practical information ever offered to the Public on the interesting Science of Agriculture.

Extracted and abridged from the above Work, by the same Author, in royal 8vo.

THE FARMER’S COMPANION, being a Complete System of Modern Husbandry; including the latest Improvements and Discoveries, in Theory and Practice.

The leading feature of excellence by which this Work is distinguished, is that minuteness of practical detail, which renders it singularly adapted to the purposes of Agriculture. The whole scope of its contents has a constant and immediate connexion with the daily pursuits of the Farmer, the Implements of Husbandry he employs, the Modes of Agriculture he adopts, and the System of Pasture and Feeding he pursues. These multifarious topics are all treated with simplicity and clearness; so that the Work presents an ample, but distinct display of every subject connected with the practical objects of a Farm. It is illustrated with upwards of One Hundred Engravings, representing improved Implements for Farming, various Breeds of Cattle, Sheep, &c. Price 1l. 16s. boards.

Sir John Sinclair on Agriculture.

THE CODE OF AGRICULTURE; including Observations on Gardens, Orchards, Woods, and Plantations. By the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair, Bart. Fourth Edition, in one large vol. 8vo. price 1l. in boards. This Edition is considerably improved by a number of valuable Remarks, communicated to the Author by some of the most intelligent Farmers in England and Scotland.

The Subjects particularly considered, are

1. The Preliminary Points which a Farmer ought to ascertain, before he undertakes to occupy any extent of Land.

2. The Means of Cultivation which are essential to ensure its success.

3. The various Modes of improving Land.

4. The various Modes of occupying Land.

5. The Means of improving a Country.

MOUBRAY ON POULTRY, PIGS, AND COWS.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON BREEDING, REARING, AND FATTENING ALL KINDS OF DOMESTIC POULTRY, PHEASANTS, PIGEONS, AND RABBITS; including, also, an interesting Account of the Egyptian Method of Hatching Eggs by Artificial Heat, with some Modern Experiments thereon; also, on Breeding, Feeding, and Managing Swine, Milch Cows, and Bees. By Bonington Moubray, Esq. A New Edition, being the Sixth, enlarged by a Treatise on Brewing, making Cider, Butter, and Cheese, adapted to the Use of Private Families. Price 7s. 6d. in boards.

? “Mr. Moubray’s little book on the breeding, rearing, and fattening all kinds of domestic poultry and pigs, is unquestionably the most practical work on the subject in our language. The author’s aim seems to have been to avoid scientific detail, and to convey his information in plain and intelligible terms. The convenience of a small poultry-yard—two or three pigs, with a breeding sow—and a cow for cream, milk, butter, and cheese—in an English country-house, appears indispensable; and to point out how these may be obtained, at a reasonable expense, seems to have been Mr. Moubray’s object. By adopting the plan of his work, any family may furnish their table with these luxuries at one-third of the price they are obliged to pay at the markets; and the farmer and breeder may render it the source of considerable profit.”—Farmer’s Journal.

Bucknall on Fruit-Trees, and the Husbandry of Orchards.

THE ORCHARDIST; or, A SYSTEM OF CLOSE PRUNING AND MEDICATION FOR ESTABLISHING THE SCIENCE OF ORCHARDING; containing full Instructions as to Manure, preventing Blight, Caterpillars, and Cure Canker, as patronized by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. By the late T. S. D. Bucknall, Esq. M.P. In 8vo. price 5s. boards.

? This Work obtained for the Author the Prize Medal and Thanks of the above Society. Only very few copies remain on hand.