Quotes and Passages from the Past

[Thinking Aloud]

Interesting or curious quotes found while proofreading old books.

Pilgrimages to the Spas in Pursuit of Health and Recreation

James Johnson ~1843.

Excerpt.

Having arrived late at Wisbaden, we put up at the nearest
hotel, which was the Adler, or Eagle, the one where Dr. Granville resided,
and the locality of which is not considered the very best by him. We
found it a very good hotel, and well supplied with excellent baths. Early
next morning, my friend Mr. Cooper, of Brentford, and myself, took out our
tickets from the "Bade-maitre" in the hall, and strolled round the establishment,
without meeting with any person whatever. As several of the
baths were standing open, we went into the first two that struck our fancy,
and bathed. I observed an unusual quantity of the scum or cream on the
surface of mine, and which I could have dispensed with. I took the opportunity,
however, of examining this cream, by means of four out of the
five senses, viz. by sight, touch, taste, and smell. Before I left the bath I
came to a conclusion as to its nature and origin. I have not a doubt that,
at the great deluge, an immense posse of white antediluvian bears, then as
large as elephants, were swept from the polar regions, and hurled headlong
into the great cauldron beneath Wisbaden. There they have been simmering
from the days of Noah--their flesh, fat, and marrow oozing up
daily, in the shape of cream or bear's grease, as well as broth, through the
Kochbrunnen, greatly to the advantage of the Wisbadenites, and the benefit
of those afflicted with gout, rheumatism, and the stiff-joints of old age.*
I am astonished that Dr. Granville and Sir Francis Head should have
framed so puny an hypothesis as that of the Kochbrunnen and Chicken-broth.
Why, I appeal to every one who has travelled in Germany,
whether it would be possible to extract an ounce of fat from all the cocks,
hens, and chickens in Nassau, even if stewed in a Papin's digester for six
months together. No, no. The cream and broth of the Kochbrunnen are
the veritable essence and decoction of the antediluvian bear, spiced perhaps
with a sprinkling of the "organic remains" of wolves, tigers, jackalls,
hyenas, and other small gear.

* It is not long since an antediluvian elephant was discovered on the shores of
Siberia, and whose flesh was eatable by the dogs and wolves of that country.

[Feck]

If I found sticky white scum floating around in the hot tub I would have drawn a different conclusion EWW He tasted it

[Magicziggy]

Paralana Hot Springs, The Flinders Ranges, South Australia - history on this is sketchy

At a guess, a good 10 hours drive form Adelaide, although I've never done it one day.

During the 1920s, when cars did make trips to the Flinders Ranges, the Paralana Hot Springs Syndicate established spa facilities at Paralana. As the location was very isolated, and accommodation rather Spartan, the venture did not last long.

[http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/tourism.htm]

Paralana Hot Springs
These hot springs rise through a fissure and contain helium, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and radon gas (which is poisonous). Camping in the area is prohibited because of the possible build up of deadly gases. The water reaches the surface at near-to-boiling point.

[http://www.smh.com.au/news/South-Austra ... 04133.html]

So it was a pilgrimage in pursuit of health, mainly TB sufferers I believe. To a radioactive mucky boiling pool.

And no, I haven't so much as dipped a toe!

[Thinking Aloud]

Another excerpt, on what to expect from curative hot springs...

Professor Heim warns the patient not to be discouraged, even if he
leaves the [hot spring] waters unrelieved, or worse than when he commenced the
course. The cure will often follow, when the individual has regained his
home, weeks or months after leaving...

Sounds a lot like prayer.

[maiforpeace]

Indeed...like "Petroleum Spas" where they soak in petroleum oil? They claim the naphthalene in it has curative properties for such ailments as psoriasis, rheumatism and athritis...even though they have yet to prove whether it's carcenogenic or not.

[Thinking Aloud]

However ...

Even in 1834, some branches of medicine had been identified for what they truly are:

... as the institutions for
the hydropathic treatment are now spread all over Germany, and open to
the inspection of all medical men, (unlike the hocus-pocus fraud, mystery,
and deception of homœopathy,) it would be unwise not to examine into a
system which shocks our prejudices rather than runs counter to historical
facts and philosophical reasoning.

[Thinking Aloud]

And here's how bathing in hot mineral waters works:

These mineral waters (internally and externally) applied to the surface--taken
into the circulation--or digested in the stomach or duodenum, oppose
themselves, in the living organism, to morbific matters--afterwards exciting
and assisting nature to expel these morbid principles from the body.

So now you know. Also, there is additional evidence: the popularity of spas is clear testament to the fact that they must work.

[egbert]

Why doesn't every village/town/city just ask a local priest to mumble the appropriate incantation, thereby converting the municipal water supply to Holy Water, and all and sundry can enjoy the miraculous healing waters.

[Thinking Aloud]

Another gem from Mrs TA's proofreading - a quote from Victor Cousin, writing in the 1830s and 1840s, a philosopher and a proponent of Scottish Common Sense Realism.

Common Sense should get you through this:

For example,
it is a rational fact attested by consciousness, that in the
view of intelligence, every phenomenon which is presented
supposes a cause. It is a fact, moreover, that
this principle of causality is marked with the characteristics
of universality and necessity. If it be universal
and necessary, to limit it would be to destroy it.
Now in the phenomenon of sensation, the principle
of causality intervenes universally and necessarily,
and refers this phenomenon to a cause; and our
consciousness testifying that this cause is not the
personal cause which the will represents, it follows that
the principle of causality in its irresistible application
conducts to an impersonal cause, that is to say, to an
external cause, which subsequently, and always irresistibly,
the principle of causality enriches with the characteristics
and laws, of which the aggregate is the Universe.
Here then is an existence; but an existence revealed by
a principle which is itself attested by consciousness.

But wait! There's more:

Here is a primary step in ontology, but by the path of
psychology, that is to say, of observation. We are led
by similar processes to the Cause of all causes, to the
substantial Cause, to God; and not only to a God of
Power, but to a God of Justice, a God of Holiness; so
that this experimental method, which, applied to a
single order of phenomena, incomplete and exclusive,
destroyed ontology and the higher elements of consciousness,
applied with fidelity, firmness and completeness,
to all the phenomena, builds up that which it had
overthrown, and by itself furnishes ontology with a sure
and legitimate instrument. Thus, having commenced
with modesty, we can end with results whose certainty
is equalled by their importance.

Thank you for your time.

[Feck]

NO .

[Bella Fortuna]

From Buffon's Natural History (1749-1788) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges-Lo ... al_history

I acknowledge, if we were forced to judge by external appearance alone, the ape might be taken for a variety in the human species. The Creator has not formed man's body on a model absolutely different from that of the mere animal; he has comprehended his figure, as well as that of every other animal, under one general plan, but at the same time that he has given him a material form, similar to that of the ape, he infused this animal body with a divine spirit.

[Thinking Aloud]

Loss of Faith in Immortality

The loss of our faith in individual immortality is
a far greater source of present pain. It leaves death a harder
sorrow;--but it lends life new meaning. The good we strive for
lies no longer in a world of dreams on the other side the grave;
it is brought down to earth and waits to be realized by human
hands, through human labor. We are called on to forsake the
finer egoism that centred all its care on self-salvation, for a love
of our own kind that shall triumph over death, and leave its impress
on the joy of generations to come.

A Review of the Systems of Ethics founded on the Theory of Evolution [1892]
Williams, C.M.

[Hermit]

Another gem from Mrs TA's proofreading - a quote from Victor Cousin, writing in the 1830s and 1840s, a philosopher and a proponent of Scottish Common Sense Realism.

Common Sense should get you through this:

For example,
it is a rational fact attested by consciousness, that in the
view of intelligence, every phenomenon which is presented
supposes a cause. It is a fact, moreover, that
this principle of causality is marked with the characteristics
of universality and necessity. If it be universal
and necessary, to limit it would be to destroy it.
Now in the phenomenon of sensation, the principle
of causality intervenes universally and necessarily,
and refers this phenomenon to a cause; and our
consciousness testifying that this cause is not the
personal cause which the will represents, it follows that
the principle of causality in its irresistible application
conducts to an impersonal cause, that is to say, to an
external cause, which subsequently, and always irresistibly,
the principle of causality enriches with the characteristics
and laws, of which the aggregate is the Universe.
Here then is an existence; but an existence revealed by
a principle which is itself attested by consciousness.

But wait! There's more:

Here is a primary step in ontology, but by the path of
psychology, that is to say, of observation. We are led
by similar processes to the Cause of all causes, to the
substantial Cause, to God; and not only to a God of
Power, but to a God of Justice, a God of Holiness; so
that this experimental method, which, applied to a
single order of phenomena, incomplete and exclusive,
destroyed ontology and the higher elements of consciousness,
applied with fidelity, firmness and completeness,
to all the phenomena, builds up that which it had
overthrown, and by itself furnishes ontology with a sure
and legitimate instrument. Thus, having commenced
with modesty, we can end with results whose certainty
is equalled by their importance.

Thank you for your time.

Hiyymer? Where aaaaaare you Hiyymer?

[JimC]

Paralana Hot Springs, The Flinders Ranges, South Australia - history on this is sketchy

At a guess, a good 10 hours drive form Adelaide, although I've never done it one day.

During the 1920s, when cars did make trips to the Flinders Ranges, the Paralana Hot Springs Syndicate established spa facilities at Paralana. As the location was very isolated, and accommodation rather Spartan, the venture did not last long.

[http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/tourism.htm]

Paralana Hot Springs
These hot springs rise through a fissure and contain helium, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and radon gas (which is poisonous). Camping in the area is prohibited because of the possible build up of deadly gases. The water reaches the surface at near-to-boiling point.

[http://www.smh.com.au/news/South-Austra ... 04133.html]

So it was a pilgrimage in pursuit of health, mainly TB sufferers I believe. To a radioactive mucky boiling pool.

And no, I haven't so much as dipped a toe!

I have been there!

Very interesting place! Did not dip my toe, or any other protuberance in...

[Bella Fortuna]

From Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites by John Netten Radcliffe, 1854.

The degree of pressure exercised by any given persons will be in the inverse ratio of the degree of control which they can exercise over the muscular
system, and over their ideas; hence the phenomena of table-turning and table-talking are most fully developed by those who are possessed of but a low degree of volitional power, and in whom the passions and emotions are paramount, as in young females, boys, or those who are influenced by certain dominant ideas: and as these conditions vary in different persons to an almost endless extent, it would follow that the power of exciting the movements of the table and responses, as well as the nature and degree of the responses, would vary in a similar degree, which is found to be the case; and the rule of response is, as one of the supporters of the Satanic theory (the Rev. N. S. Godfrey) very naively remarks, "whatever the investigator wishes it to be."