|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 10
In _Paris_ there is 1 physician to 1,300 inhabitants; 1 surgeon to
6,000 inhabitants; 1 apothecary to 4,450 inhabitants.
Being in the proportion of 1 physician in Paris to 5 in London; 5
surgeons in London to 1 in Paris; 7 apothecaries in London to 1 in
Paris.
Supposing, on an average, each of these persons to receive
1,000_l._ a year, the whole income of the medical profession in
London would be 3,474,000_l._ annually.
_Poor Rates._
About the close of the seventeenth century, the poors' rates of England
and Wales were stated, on the authority of parliamentary documents, to
amount to 665,362_l._; and the population of both to 5,475,000. In
1821, the poors' rates amounted to about 7,000,000_l._, and the
population to 12,218,000. Dividing the greater rates 7,000,000_l._
by the lesser 665,362_l._, we have about 10-1/2 to 1, which is the
proportion in which the poors' rates have increased in the last 127
years. And dividing the greater population 12,218,000 by the lesser
5,475,000, give about 2-1/2 to 1, which is the proportionate increase of
population during that space of time.
_Van Dieman's Land Wasp._
The wasp of Van Dieman's Land is a smaller but much more splendid insect
than the English wasp; it has four orange-coloured wings, and horns and
legs of the same colour, a hard body, and a formidable sting. It is an
inhabitant of the forest, and is at war with a spider that makes its
hole in the sandy places, and which is armed with a cap or door, which
it pulls over on the approach of its enemy, or in rainy weather. The
wasp hovers close over the ground, prowling from one hole to another.
Having seized its prey, it immediately kills the spider, and carries it
off to its own hole, when it is said to devour the limbs, and to deposit
its egg in the body to be hatched by the putrefaction that ensues, and
which furnishes food for the young insect produced.
* * * * *
THE SKETCH-BOOK.
No. XLVIII.
* * * * *
HIGHLAND SUPERSTITION.
There is an extraordinary superstition connected with the M'Alister
family. Ages ago,--for I have never yet got a date from a Highlander as
to the transactions of long past times,--but many generations back, in
the days of a chief of great renown in the clan, called M'Alister More,
either from his deeds or his stature, there was a skirmish with a
neighbouring clan that ended fatally for the M'Alisters, though in the
contest at the time they were victorious.
A party of their young men set out once upon a foray; they marched over
the hills for several hours, and at last descended into a little glen,
which was rented as a black cattle farm by a widow woman and her two
sons. The sons were absent from home on some excursion, and had carried
most of their servants with them, so that the M'Alisters met with no
resistance in their attempts to raise the cattle. They hunted every
corner of the glen, secured every beast, and, in spite of the tears of
the widow, they drove her herd away. When the sons returned, and heard
the story of the raid, they collected a strong party of their friends,
and crossing the hill secretly by night, surprised the few M'Alisters
who were left in charge of the spoil, vanquished them easily, and
recovered their cattle. Such a slight to the power of M'Alister More
could not go unpunished. The chief himself headed the band which set out
to vindicate the honour of the clan. He marched steadily over the rugged
mountains, and arrived towards sunset in the little glen. To oppose the
force he brought with him, would have been fruitless; the sons and their
few adherents were speedily overpowered, and led bound before him; they
were small in number, but they were gallant and brave, and yielded only
to superior strength. M'Alister More was always attended by four and
twenty bowmen, who acted as his body guard, his jury, his judges, and
his executioners. They erected on the instant a gibbet before the door
of the wretched mother, and there her sons were hung.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|