A Voyage to the Moon

by George Tucker

  CHAPTER VIII.

  _A celebrated physician: his ingenious theories in physics: his mechanicalinventions--The feather-hunting Glonglim._

  On returning to our lodgings, we, acting under the influence of long habit,went to bed, though half the family were up, and engaged in their ordinaryemployments. One consequence of the length of the days and nights here is,that every household is commonly divided into two parts, which watch andsleep by turns: nor have they any uniformity in their meals, except inparticular families, which are regulated by clocks and time-pieces. Thevulgar have no means of measuring smaller portions of time than a day ornight, (each equal to a fortnight with us,) except by observing theapparent motion of the sun or the stars, in which, considering that it isnearly thirty times as slow as with us, they attain surprising accuracy.They have the same short intervals of labour and rest in their long nightas their day--the light reflected from the earth, being commonly sufficientto enable them to perform almost any operation; and, ere our planet is inher second quarter, one may read the smallest print by her light.

  To compensate their want of this natural advantage, the inhabitants ofMoriboozia are abundantly supplied with a petroleum, or bituminous liquid,which is found every where about their lakes, or on their mountains, andwhich they burn in lamps, of various sizes, shapes, and constructions. Theyhave also numerous volcanoes, each of which sheds a strong light for manymiles around.

  We slept unusually long; and, owing in part to Wigurd's good cheer, I awokewith a head-ache. I got up to take a long walk, which often relieves mewhen suffering from that malady; and, on ascending the stairs, I met ourlandlord's eldest daughter, a tall, graceful girl of twenty. I found shewas coming down backwards, which I took to be a mere girlish freak, orperhaps a piece of coquetry, practised on myself: but I afterwards found,that about the time the earth is at the full, the whole family pursued thesame course, and were very scrupulous in making their steps in this awkwardand inconvenient way, because it was one of the prescribed forms of theirchurch.

  As my head-ache became rather worse, than better, from my walk, the Brahminproposed to accompany me to the house of a celebrated physician, calledVindar, who was also a botanist, chemist, and dentist, to consult him on mycase; and thither we forthwith proceeded. I found him a large, unwieldyfigure, of a dull, heavy look, but by no means deficient in science ornatural shrewdness. He confirmed my previous impression that I ought tolose blood, and plausibly enough accounted for my present sensation offulness, from the inferior pressure of the lunar atmosphere to that which Ihad been accustomed. He proposed, however, to return to my veins a portionof thinner blood in place of what he should take away, and offered me thechoice of several animals, which he always kept by him for that purpose.There were two white animals of the hog kind, a male and a female lama,three goats, besides several birds, about the size of a turkey, sometortoises, and other amphibious animals. He professed himself willing, incase I had any foolish scruples against mixing my blood with that ofbrutes, to purify my own, and put it back; but I obstinately declined bothexpedients; whereupon he opened a vein in my arm, and took from it aboutfourteen ounces of blood. Finding myself, weakened as well as relieved, bythe operation, he invited me to rest myself; and while I was recovering mystrength, he discoursed with the Brahmin and myself on several of hisfavourite topics. On returning home, I committed to paper some of the mostremarkable of his opinions, which it may be as well to notice, that thosewho have since propounded, or may hereafter propound, the same to theworld, may not claim the merit of originality.

  He maintained that the number of our senses was greater than that commonlyassigned to us. That we had, for example, a sense of acids, of alkalies, ofweight, and of heat. That acid substances acted upon our bodies by apeculiar set of nerves, or through some medium of their own, was evidentfrom this, that they set the teeth on edge, though these, from their hardand bony nature, are insensible to the touch. That astringents shrivelledup the flesh and puckered the mouth, even when their taste was notperceived. That when the skin shrunk on the application of vinegar, couldit be said that it had not a peculiar sense of this liquid, or rather ofits acidity, since the existence of the senses was known only by effectswhich external matter produced on them? That the senses, like that oftouch, were seated in most parts of the body, but were most acute in themouth, nose, ears, and eyes. He showed some disposition to maintain thepopular notions of the Greeks and Romans, that the rivers and streams areendowed with reason and volition; and endeavoured to prove that some oftheir windings and deviations from a straight line, cannot be explainedupon mechanical principles.

  Vindar is, moreover, a projector of a very bold character; and not long agopetitioned the commanding general of an army, suddenly raised to repel anincursion of one of their neighbours, to march his troops intoGoolo-Tongtoia, for the purpose of digging a canal from one of theirpetroleum lakes into Morosofia, and conducting it, by smaller streams, overthat country, for the purpose of warming it during their long cool nights.

  He has, too, a large grist and saw mill, which are put in motion by theexplosion of gunpowder. This is conveyed, by a sufficiently ingeniousmachine, in very small portions, to the bottom of an upright cylinder,which is immediately shut perfectly close. A flint and steel are at thesame time made to strike directly over it, and to ignite the powder. Theair that is thus generated, forces up a piston through a cylinder, whichpiston, striking the arm of a wheel, puts it in motion, and with it themachinery of the mills. A complete revolution of the wheel again preparesthe cylinder for a fresh supply of gunpowder, which is set on fire, andproduces the same effect as before.

  He told me he had been fifteen years perfecting this great work, in whichtime it had been twice blown up by accidents, arising from the carelessnessor mismanagement of the workmen; but that he now expected it would repayhim for the time and money he had expended. He had once, he said, intendedto use the expansive force of congelation for his moving power; but hefound, after making a full and accurate calculation, that the labourersrequired to keep the machine supplied with ice, consumed something morethan twice as much corn as the mill would grind in the same time. He thenwas about to move it to a fine stream of water in the neighbourhood, which,by being dammed up, so as to form a large pond, would afford him aconvenient and inexhaustible supply of ice. But the millwright, after thedam was completed, having artfully obtained his permission to use the wastewater, and fraudulently erected there a common water-mill, which soonobtained all the neighbouring custom, he had sold out that property, andresorted to the agency of gunpowder, which is quite as philosophical aprocess as that of congelation, and much less expensive. In answer to aninquiry of the Brahmin's, he admitted, that though he had been able, by theforce of congelation, to burst metallic tubes several inches thick, he hadnever succeeded in making it put the lightest machinery into a continuedmotion.

  Having now nearly recovered, and being, I confess, somewhat bewildered bythe variety and complexity of these ingenious projects, I felt disposed totake my leave; but Vindar insisted on conducting us into an innerapartment, to see his _poetry box_. This was a large piece of furniture,profusely decorated with metals of various colours, curiously andfantastically inlaid. It contained a prodigious number of drawers,which were labelled after the manner of those in an apothecary's shop,(from whence he denied, however, that he first took the hint,) and thelabels were arranged in alphabetical order.

  "Now," says he, "as the excellence of poetry consists in bringing beforethe mind's eye what can be brought before the corporeal eye, I have herecollected every object that is either beautiful or pleasing in nature,whether by its form, colour, fragrance, sweetness, or other quality, aswell as those that are strikingly disagreeable. When I wish to exhibitthose pictures which constitute poetry, I consult the appropriate cabinet,and I take my choice of those various substances which can best call up theimage I wish to present to my reader. For example: suppose I wish to speakof any object that is white, or analogous to white, I o
pen the drawer thatis thus labelled, and I see silver, lime, chalk, and white enamel, ivory,paper, snow-drops, and alabaster, and select whichever of these substanceswill best suit the measure and the rhyme, and has the most soft-soundingname. If the colour be yellow, then there are substances of all shades ofthis hue, from saffron and pickled salmon to brimstone and straw. I havesixty-two red substances, twenty-seven green ones, and others in the sameproportion. It is astonishing what labour this box has saved me, and howmuch it has added to the beauty and melody of my verse.

  "You perceive," he added, "the drawer missing. That contained substancesoffensive to the sight or smell, which my maid, conducted to it by hernose, conceived to be some animal curiosities I had been collecting, in astate of putrefaction and decay, and did not hesitate to throw them intothe fire. I afterwards found myself very much at a loss, whenever mysubject led me to the mention of objects of this character, and I thereforespoke of them as seldom as possible." After bestowing that tribute ofadmiration and praise which every great author or inventor expects, in hisown house, and not omitting his customary medical fee, we took our leave.

  We had not long left Vindar's house, before we saw a short fat man in thesuburbs, preparing to climb to the top of a plane tree, on which there wasone of the tail feathers of a sort of flamingo. He was surrounded byattendants and servants, to whom he issued his commands with great rapidityand decision, occasionally intermingling with his orders the mostthreatening language and furious gesticulations. Some offered to get aladder, and ascend, and others to cut down the tree; all of which heobstinately rejected. He swore he would get the feather--he would get it byclimbing--and he would climb but one way, which way was on the shoulders ofhis men. His plan was to make a number of them form a solid square, andinterlock their arms; then a smaller number to mount upon their shoulders,on whom others were in like manner placed, and so on till the pyramid wassufficiently high, when he himself was to mount, and from the shoulders ofthe highest pluck the darling object of his wishes. He had in this way, Iafterwards learnt, gathered some of the richest flowers of the bignoniascarlatina, as well as such fruits as had tempted him by their lusciousappearance, and at the same time frightening all the birds from theirnests, which he commonly destroyed: and although some of his attendantswere occasionally much hurt and bruised in this singular amusement, hestill persevered in it. He had continued it for several years, with nointermission, except a short one, when he was engaged in breaking a youngllana in the place of an old one, which had been many years a favourite,but was now in disgrace, because, as he said, he did not think it so safefor going down hill, but in reality, because he liked the figure andmovements of the young one better.

  I could not see this rash Glonglim attempt to climb that dangerous ladder,without feeling alarm for his safety. At first all seemed to go on verywell; but just as he was about to lay hold of the gaudy prize, there arosea sudden squall, which threw both him and his supporters into confusion,and the whole living pyramid came to the ground together. Many werekilled--some were wounded and bruised. Polenap himself, by lighting on hismen, who served him as cushions, barely escaped with life. But he receiveda fracture in the upper part of his head, and a dislocation of the hip,which will not only prevent him from ever climbing again, but probably makehim a cripple for life.

  The Brahmin and I endeavoured to give the sufferers some assistance; butthis was rendered unnecessary, by the crowd which their cries andlamentations brought to their relief. I thought that the author of so muchmischief would have been stoned on the spot; but, to my surprise, hisservants seemed to feel as much for his honour as their own safety, andwarmly interfered in his behalf, until they had somewhat appeased the rageof the surrounding multitude.