On a brass : "Here lies the Body of Mrs. Taylor, widow, daughter of Dr. Moreton, formerly Bishop of Meath, in Ireland. She died May 25, 1774, in the 80th year of her age. Ossa in pace quiescent." It appears by Domesday Book that Earl Moreton held Firle in domain, where he had 5 ploughs in demesne, and 80 villeins with 34 ploughs; here were also 2 mills of 40s. 72 acres of meadow, and a wood of 40 hogs.-26 Hen. VIII. the Vicarage was valued at 137. 9s. 4d. at which period Robert Ott, Clerk, was Vicar; and the Prebend at 10s. Sampson Mychell, Clerk, Prebendary. Mr. URBAN, Aug. 20. W THEN you have opportunity, you will oblige me by inserting the accompanying two small Views of Great Bookham Church, and the Market House at Godalming, both in the County of Surrey, (see Plate II.) The Parish of Great Bookham, in the hundred of Effingham, is on the turnpike road from Leatherhead to Guildford. It adjoins to Fetcham on the East, to Little Bookham on the West, to Stoke Dabernon on the North, and to Dorking on the South. The soil on the North side is clay, on the South it is chalk, the intermediate part is a good loam. It contains by a recent admeasurement 3223 acres, of which 1536 are arable, 194 meadow, 256 wood, 784 common laud, 109 tythe free, and 344 in buildings, ponds, gardens, waste, and pasture. The Church is in the Deanery of Stoke, is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and was valued 20 Edw.. at 35 marcs. It is a discharged living in the king's books; and pays procurations and synodals to the Archdeacon 28. Id. The Church is built with flints, squared chalk stones being intermixed; and consists of a Nave with a Chancel at the end, separated by a lofty arch; a North aile as long as the Nave, separated by two obtuse pointed arches; and a South aile separated by four rounded arches, resting on round pillars. At the East end of the latter is a Chapel belonging to Slyfield House, sepa rated from the South aile by an obj tuse pointed arch. The Font is a plain square stone, on a large square GENT. MAG, September, 1814. base, with round pillars at each corner. At the West end is a steeple, consisting of a low boarded Tower, with a small spire covered with shingles, much overgrown with ivy. In it are four bells. On a plain freestone in the wall, at the East end of the chancel, is the following inscription*, cut deep in the stone, of nearly two inches long. "Hæc Domus Abbate fuerat constructa Johanne [lai, De Rutherwyka, decus ob Sancti Nicho Anno Milleno, triceno, bisque viceno Primo. Christus ei paret hinc sedem re quiei." For an account of the estates in this parish, and their proprietors at various periods, and also copies of the monumental inscriptions, see the second volume of Manning and Bray's elaborate "History of Surrey," whence the above particulars are bor rowed. In the last century, this place could boast among its landholders two brave Admirals, Sir Francis Geary, bart. and Admiral Brodrick, nephew of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland of that naine. According to the Population Return, 1811, the parish of Great Bookham contained 1 house building, 2 houses uninhabited, and 111 houses occupied by 120families, (74 of whom were chiefly employed in agriculture, and S2 in trade, &c.) consisting of 299 males, and 307 females; total 606. VIATOR. Mr. URBAN, Aug. 26. HE use of alkalies, is a new THE subject in Medicine. Enough however is already known to unveil the errors of our forefathers; and to sanction a supposition, that there still lies a mighty treasure concealed in the various abodes of acid and alkali, for time and the increasing light of philosophy to explore. After this exordium, some illustra tion is necessarily expected. Among the many voyages which Mr. John Reader, a very respectable and well-known character in Jamaica, made from that island, for an extraordinary hæmorrhage from his lungs*; one of them was to Carthagena, in Spanish America. From thence he travelled through the greater part of Peru. On his return to Jamaica, and from thence to England in 1787, he gave me a Calabash, containing about a pound of a White Powder; he did not know what this powder was; but fold me with great astonishment, that the Indians in Peru, whenever they make long journeys, take with them the same sort of Calabash, or Gourd, filled with this white powder; with a small horn-spoon in the bunghole. One of these little spoons, was in the calabash of powder he gave to me. In their journeys, the Indians take a spoonful of the powder into their mouths, and swallow it gradually; and when thirsty, they drink a draught of water after it. Thus, without any other nutriment, they will travel a thousand miles; and often remain for a considerable time in the mountains and woods in hunting, and in secreting themselves from the Spaniards, without taking any food with them. An instance is recorded, and well known, of an Indian baving travelled with alarm dispatches from Lima to the North Sea, through an immense tract of uninhabited regions, at the time when Anson was on the coast of Peru, with out any other support; at least his calabash, and a little tobacco, was all he took with him; and it was ascertained, that no food could be proured in the route he went. On examining this wonderful powder, I found it was the Lime of Oyster Shells calcined; which, from having been kept dry, and well cork ed up, had the quick pungency of common lime fresh made; and on which its virtue depends. PETER DE CIEZA, who resided seventeen years in Peru, treats very minutely of the customs of the Indians, and says, that they hold in their mouths a small herb called Coca; with a composition, they keep in little calabashes, or else a sort of earth like lime." Respecting the Coca leaves, he says, "throughout all Peru, from the See DOCTOR MOSELEY'S Treatise on Tropical Diseases, Military Operations, and Climate of the West Indies. Edit, 4th, p. 56%, time they rise in the morning until they go to bed at night, they are never without this Coca in their mouths. The reason some Indians, to whom I put the question, gave me for so doing, was, that it made them insensible of hunger, and added to their strength and vigour." "Coca is planted in the mountains of the Andes, from Guamanga to the town of La Plata, where it grows up to little trees, which they cherish and nurse carefully, that they may bear those leaves resembling our myrtle. They dry them in the sun, and then lay them out in baskets, each of them holding about a quarter of an hundred weight. So highly was this Coca valued in Peru, in 1548, 49, 50, and 51, that I believe, no plant in the world, except spice, could equal it; for at that time, most of the plantations about Cuzco, La Paz, and La Plata, yielded, some eighty, some sixty, and some forty thousand pieces of eight a year, more or less, and all in Coca; and whosoever had lands assigned him, first reckoned how many baskets of Coca they yielded. In fine, it was more esteemed than the best wheat. They carried it to sell at the mines of Potosi; and so many fell to planting, that it is now much fallen in price, but will always be valued. Several Spaniards got estates by buying and selling Coca; or bartering for it in the Indian markets †.” Many authors since CIEZA's time, have given marvellous relations, of the South American Indians living a long time on a portable substitute for food. But the composition of this substitute has never been cor rectly ascertained. It appears, bowever, that Coca, or Belle, or Tobacco, with the Lime already mentioned, are the principal ingredients of the composition. tak Our countryman PARKINSON, ing his account from travellers, gays, that the American Indians "chew the leaves of the Coca in their long journeys, to preserve them from hupger and thirst abroad, as for pleasure at home; which they use after this manner. They burn oyster-shells, and with the powder of them they mix the powder of the leaves of this Coca, first chewed in their mouths, and so made up as it were into a paste or dough (but take less of the oyster-shells than of the leaves) whereof they make small pellets, trochisses, or trosses, laying them to dry, and so use them one by one, holding them in their mouths, rolling them to and fro, and sucking them until they be quite spent, and then take another, which maketh them able to travel many dayes with strength, without either meat or drink, through uninhabited places, where none is to be had. If they stay at home, they use the Coca alone, chewing it sometimes an whole day without ceasing, until the substance be sucked forth, and then use another. If they would have them to be stronger, able to intoxicate their brains like unto drunkenness, they put the leaves of Tobacco to it, and take great pleasure in those courses." He says, "the East Indians do use the leaves of the Betle, much after the same manner that they of the West do the Coca leaves." The ordinary manner of which is, -"they chew the leaves in their mouths, and spit out the first juice that cometh from them, which is like blood, and put unto them a little of the calx of burnt Oyster-shells,and the fruit of Areca or Faufell, beaten small, which give them a pleasaut taste *." Our other countryman GERARD observes, that "the leaves of Betie, chewed in the mouth, are of a bitter taste (saith Garcias.) They (the Indians) put thereto some Areca, and with Lime made of Oyster-shells, whereunto they also add some Ambergrease, Liguum Aloes, and such like, which they stamp together, making it into a paste, which they roll up into round balls, keep dry for their use, and carry the same in their mouths, until by little and little it is consumed, as when we carry sugarcandy in our mouths, or the juice of liquorice, which is not only unto the silly Indians, meat, but also drink, in their tedious travels, refreshing their weary spirits, and helping their memory t." Some modern travellers have given us what they conceive to be the composition of the Betel, or Betle mas • Theat. Botan. p. 1614, 1615. + Herbal, p. 1541.: ticatory; with some observations on its almost universal use in the East. Peron says, Betel is usually com posed of Areck-nut two parts, Quick Lime one part, of the buruing leaf of a species of Pepper (Piper betel), and of the leaves of Tobacco one part. These are well mixed together, and form a sort of a quid for the mouth; which is in general use in all hot climates, from the Moluccas to the Yellow River; and from the Ganges and Indus to the shores of the Black Sea. Labillardiere observes, that Lime is an essential ingredient of this pre paration; and that the inhabitants of the Admiralty Islands carry with them Calabashes and Bamboos of very finely powdered Quick-lime. One of them, he says, had a spoon in the form of a spatula, which he filled with Lime, and made many signs and gestures, to show his visitors how excellent it was. Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland confirm, what we have before stated, that Quick-lime is now sold in South America, in the public markets, for chewing, as an article of the first necessity; and that it is prepared from the burning of calcareous madrepores ‡. Many writers have mentioned the power of Tobacco in suspending hunger. This is not unknown to people who are in the habit of chewing it. MONARDES says, the Indians chew pills made of Tobacco; and that their languor and thirst are so allayed thereby, that they can travel mang days without food §. MAGNENUS records, that a soldier at the siege of Valencia, in 1636, lived without food for a week, and underwent the greatest fatigue, by chewing Tobacco only *. Every person knows what violent contentions and partisans Tobacco gave rise to, on its first introduction into England: King JAMES entered the lists furiously against it; and others See the American Medical Repository, vol. iii. Hexade 2. pp. 100, 101. This highly valuable work is published periodically at New York, by Doctor Samuel Latham Mitchill, and Doctor Edward Miller, two eminent Physicians of that City. § Lib. de Simpl. Med. Cap. de Tabaco. De Tabaco, Exercit. ix. as furiously defended it. Perhaps BEN JONSON had these combatants in view, in Bobadil's extravagant eulogium on Tobacco. "I have been," says the admirable braggadocia, “in the Indies, where this herb grows, where neither myself, nor a dozen gentlemen more, of my knowledge, have received the taste of any other nutriment in the world, for the space of one and twenty weeks, but the fume of this simple only *." There are several kinds of absorbent earths, which produce similar effects, in part, on the gastric juice, to the stronger alkalies. The Negroes in the markets in the West Indies, make a regular traffick with a pinguious earth, called Aboo earth which they sell to the slaves, and others, who are in that part of the world termed Dirt-eaters. There are some also that are not regular Dirt-eaters, who frequently eat it, such is their taste, by way of luxury. Dirt-eaters, though generally, are not always sickly and diseased people; and many of them retain their health, but little impaired, for a considerable time. Those who are strongly tainted with that vitiated state of the stomach, which inclines them to this depravity, will, if left to themselves, live entirely on earth, until it destroys them and will not, unless compelled, take any other food. Neither age por sex, among the African race, is exempt from this passion; and many of them will live for months successively, on dirt-and those long accustomed to it, being deprived of it, languish; no nourishment can restore them, and they invariably die. Children, and young people, however, are often recovered to health, by turning them from the fatal liar sort of earth before mentioned, which is a species of the Marga, or Marl, BROWNE calls it subpinguis tenax ; or clammy Marl. He says, it "runs in veins, and is chiefly found in marly beds; it is of different colours, but these generally answer to that of the layer wherein it is found. It is apparently smooth and greasy, and somewhat cohesive in its nature, but dissolves easily in the mouth. The Negroes who make use of this substance say, that it is sweetish; and many get a habit of eating it to such excess, that it often proves fatal to them. It is the most certain poison I have known, when used for any length of time; and often enters so abundantly into the course of the circulation, as to obstruct all the minute capillaries of the body; nay, has been often found concreted in the glands, and smaller vessels of the lungs, so far as to become sensibly perceptible to the touch. It breaks the texture of the blood entirely; and for many months before they die, a general languor affects the machine, and all the internal parts, lips, gums, and tongue, are quite pale, insomuch, that the whole mass of their juices seems to be no better than a waterish lymph. It is probable they are first induced to the use of this substance, which is generally well known among them, to allay some sharp cravings of the stomach; either from hunger, worms, or an unnatural habit of body +," This disease is not, strictly speaking, the Malacia, or Pica: which disease, as well as Chlorosis, is also common in hot climates. In the Pica, the depravity covets a variety of articles; such as cinders, mortar, vinegar, salt, bitters, and many detestable things. But a genuine Dirteater confines himself to bis adored Aboo earth; and only in defect of that, has recourse to Malacian filth. Dirt-eating is said to be endemical in some districts of North Carolina; and not there confined to the Negro race +. But to return to our Indian story, Notwithstanding all that has been here related, I believe we are not + Natural History of Jamaica, p. 64. American Medical Repository, vol. V. Hexade 2d, p. 540. fully |