Quotes4study

There had been no prisoners confined in the Chateau d'If since the revolution of July; it was only inhabited by a guard, kept there for the prevention of smuggling. A concierge waited at the door to exhibit to visitors this monument of curiosity, once a scene of terror. The count inquired whether any of the ancient jailers were still there; but they had all been pensioned, or had passed on to some other employment. The concierge who attended him had only been there since 1830. He visited his own dungeon. He again beheld the dull light vainly endeavoring to penetrate the narrow opening. His eyes rested upon the spot where had stood his bed, since then removed, and behind the bed the new stones indicated where the breach made by the Abbe Faria had been. Monte Cristo felt his limbs tremble; he seated himself upon a log of wood.

Alexandre Dumas, Pere     The Count of Monte Cristo

But indeed, at that time, putting to death was a recipe much in vogue with all trades and professions, and not least of all with Tellson's. Death is Nature's remedy for all things, and why not Legislation's? Accordingly, the forger was put to Death; the utterer of a bad note was put to Death; the unlawful opener of a letter was put to Death; the purloiner of forty shillings and sixpence was put to Death; the holder of a horse at Tellson's door, who made off with it, was put to Death; the coiner of a bad shilling was put to Death; the sounders of three-fourths of the notes in the whole gamut of Crime, were put to Death. Not that it did the least good in the way of prevention--it might almost have been worth remarking that the fact was exactly the reverse--but, it cleared off (as to this world) the trouble of each particular case, and left nothing else connected with it to be looked after. Thus, Tellson's, in its day, like greater places of business, its contemporaries, had taken so many lives, that, if the heads laid low before it had been ranged on Temple Bar instead of being privately disposed of, they would probably have excluded what little light the ground floor had, in a rather significant manner.

Charles Dickens     A Tale of Two Cities

Thus,--and in the exaggeration of anguish, and the optical illusion of consternation, all that might have corrected and restrained this impression was effaced, and society, and the human race, and the universe were, henceforth, summed up in his eyes, in one simple and terrible feature,--thus the penal laws, the thing judged, the force due to legislation, the decrees of the sovereign courts, the magistracy, the government, prevention, repression, official cruelty, wisdom, legal infallibility, the principle of authority, all the dogmas on which rest political and civil security, sovereignty, justice, public truth, all this was rubbish, a shapeless mass, chaos; he himself, Javert, the spy of order, incorruptibility in the service of the police, the bull-dog providence of society, vanquished and hurled to earth; and, erect, at the summit of all that ruin, a man with a green cap on his head and a halo round his brow; this was the astounding confusion to which he had come; this was the fearful vision which he bore within his soul.

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

Francis Kett, the mystic, burnt in 1589 for heresy, was a fellow and tutor of his college, and may have had some share in developing Marlowe's opinions in religious matters. Marlowe's classical acquirements were of a kind which was then extremely common, being based for the most part upon a minute acquaintance with Roman mythology, as revealed in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_. His spirited translation of Ovid's _Amores_ (printed 1596), which was at any rate commenced at Cambridge, does not seem to point to any very intimate acquaintance with the grammar and syntax of the Latin tongue. Before 1587 he seems to have quitted Cambridge for London, where he attached himself to the Lord Admiral's Company of Players, under the leadership of the famed actor Edward Alleyn, and almost at once began writing for the stage. Of Marlowe's career in London, apart from his four great theatrical successes, we know hardly anything; but he evidently knew Thomas Kyd, who shared his unorthodox opinions. Nash criticized his verse, Greene affected to shudder at his atheism; Gabriel Harvey maligned his memory. On the other hand Marlowe was intimate with the Walsinghams of Scadbury, Chiselhurst, kinsmen of Sir Francis Walsingham: he was also the personal friend of Sir Walter Raleigh, and perhaps of the poetical earl of Oxford, with both of whom, and with such men as Walter Warner and Robert Hughes the mathematicians, Thomas Harriott the notable astronomer, and Matthew Royden, the dramatist is said to have met in free converse. Either this free converse or the licentious character of some of the young dramatist's tirades seems to have sown a suspicion among the strait-laced that his morals left everything to be desired. It is probable enough that this attitude of reprobation drove a man of so exalted a disposition as Marlowe into a more insurgent attitude than he would have otherwise adopted. He seems at any rate to have been associated with what was denounced as Sir Walter Raleigh's school of atheism, and to have dallied with opinions which were then regarded as putting a man outside the pale of civilized humanity. As the result of some depositions made by Thomas Kyd under the influence of torture, the Privy Council were upon the eve of investigating some serious charges against Marlowe when his career was abruptly and somewhat scandalously terminated. The order had already been issued for his arrest, when he was slain in a quarrel by a man variously named (Archer and Ingram) at Deptford, at the end of May 1593, and he was buried on the 1st of June in the churchyard of St Nicholas at Deptford. The following September Gabriel Harvey referred to him as "dead of the plague." The disgraceful particulars attached to the tragedy of Marlowe in the popular mind would not seem to have appeared until four years later (1597) when Thomas Beard, the Puritan author of _The Theatre of God's Judgements_, used the death of this playmaker and atheist as one of his warning examples of the vengeance of God. Upon the embellishments of this story, such as that of Francis Meres the critic, in 1598, that Marlowe came to be "stabbed to death by a bawdy servingman, a rival of his in his lewde love," or that of William Vaughan in the _Golden Grove_ of 1600, in which the unfortunate poet's dagger is thrust into his own eye in prevention of his felonious assault upon an innocent man, his guest, it is impossible now to pronounce. We really do not know the circumstances of Marlowe's death. The probability is he was killed in a brawl, and his atheism must be interpreted not according to the _ex parte_ accusation of one Richard Baines, a professional informer (among the Privy Council records), but as a species of rationalistic antinomianism, dialectic in character, and closely related to the deflection from conventional orthodoxy for which Kett was burnt at Norwich in 1589. A few months before the end of his life there is reason to believe that he transferred his services from the Lord Admiral's to Lord Strange's Company, and may have thus been brought into communication with Shakespeare, who in such plays as _Richard II._ and _Richard III._ owed not a little to the influence of his romantic predecessor. Entry: MARLOWE

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 17, Slice 6 "Map" to "Mars"     1910-1911

In Venetia the lives of the small proprietors and of the salaried peasants are often extremely miserable. There and in Lombardy the disease known as _pellagra_ is most widely diffused. The disease is due to poisoning by micro-organisms produced by deteriorated maize, and can be combated by care in ripening, drying and storing the maize. The most recent statistics show the disease to be diminishing. Whereas in 1881 there were 104,067 (16.29 per 1000) peasants afflicted by the disease, in 1899 there were only 72,603 (10.30 per 1000) peasants, with a maximum of 39,882 (34.32 per 1000) peasants in Venetia, and 19,557 (12.90 per 1000) peasants in Lombardy. The decrease of the disease is a direct result of the efforts made to combat it, in the form of special hospitals or _pellagrosari_, economic kitchens, rural bakeries and maize-drying establishments. A bill for the better prevention of pellagra was introduced in the spring of 1902. The deaths from it dropped in that year to 2376, from 3054 in the previous year and 3788 in 1900. Entry: A

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 1 "Italy" to "Jacobite Church"     1910-1911

On graduation as bachelor of medicine, Lister went to Edinburgh, where he soon afterwards became house-surgeon to Mr Syme; and he was much impressed by the skill and judgment of this great surgeon, and also by the superiority of his method of dressing recent wounds with dry lint, as compared with the "water dressing" in use at University College. Yet under these more favourable conditions the amelioration was only one of degree; in most wounds indeed "union by first intention" was rendered impossible by the presence of the silk ligatures employed for arresting bleeding, for these could come away only by a process of suppuration. On the expiry of his house-surgeoncy in Edinburgh, Lister started in that city an extra-academical course of lectures on surgery; and in preparation for these he entered on a series of investigations into inflammation and allied subjects. These researches, which were detailed fully in three papers in _Phil. Trans._ (1859), and in his Croonian lecture to the Royal Society in 1863, testified to an earnestness of purpose, a persevering accuracy of observation and experiment and an insight of scientific conception which show that if Lister had never developed the aseptic method of surgery, he would have taken a very high place in pathology. In his speech in Paris at the Thirteenth International Congress of Medicine in 1900, Lord Lister said that he had done no more than seize upon Pasteur's discoveries and apply them to surgery. But though Lister saw the vast importance of the discoveries of Pasteur, he saw it because he was watching on the heights; and he was watching there alone. From Pasteur Lister derived no doubt two fruitful ideas: first, that decomposition in organic substances is due to living "germs"; and, secondly, that these lowly and minute forms of vegetable life spring always, like higher organisms, from parents like themselves, and cannot arise _de novo_ in the animal body. After his appointment to the Glasgow chair in 1860, Lister had continued his researches on inflammation; and he had long been led to suspect that decomposition of the blood in the wound was the main cause of suppuration. The two great theories established by Pasteur seemed to Lister to open out the possibility of what had before appeared hopeless--namely, the prevention of putrefaction in the wound, and consequently the forestalling of suppuration. To exclude the oxygen of the air from wounds was impossible, but it might be practicable to protect them from microbes. Entry: LISTER

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 16, Slice 7 "Liquid Gases" to "Logar"     1910-1911

There are many cases of complete or partial blindness which might have been prevented, and a knowledge of the best methods of prevention and cure should be spread as widely as possible. Magnus, Bremer, Steffen and Rössler are of opinion that 40% of the cases of blindness might have been prevented. Hayes gives 33.35% as positively avoidable, 38.75% possibly avoidable, and 46.27% as a conservative estimate. Cohn regards blindness as certainly preventable in 33%, as probably preventable in 43%, and as quite unpreventable in only 24%. If we take the lowest of these figures, and assume that 400 out of every 1000 blind persons might have been saved from such a calamity, we realize the importance of preventative measures. For the physiology and pathology of the eye generally, see VISION and EYE. Entry: CAUSES

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 1 "Bisharin" to "Bohea"     1910-1911

_Italy and Spain._--The wide difference between the industrial development of these southern Latin countries and the two countries with which this summary begins, and the far greater importance of the agricultural interests, produced a situation, as regards labour legislation until as recently as 1903, which makes it convenient to touch on the comparatively limited scope of their regulations at the close of the series. It was stated by competent and impartial observers from each of the two countries, at the International Congress on Labour Laws held at Brussels in 1897, that the lack of adequate measures for protection of child labour and inefficient administration of such regulations as exist was then responsible for abuse of their forces that could be found in no other European countries. "Their labour in factories, workshops, and mines constitutes a veritable martyrdom" (Spain). "I believe that there is no country where a sacrifice of child life is made that is comparable with that in certain Italian factories and industries" (Italy). In both countries important progress has since been made in organizing inspection and preventing accidents. In Spain the first step in the direction of limitation of women's hours of labour was taken by a law of 1900, which took effect in 1902, in regulations for reduction of hours of labour for adults to 11, normally, in the 24. Hours of children under 14 must not exceed 6 in any industrial work nor 8 in any commercial undertaking. Labour before the age of 10 years and night work between 6 P.M. and 5 A.M. was prohibited, and powers were taken to extend the prohibition of night work to young persons under 16 years. The labour of children in Italy was until 1902 regulated in the main by a law of 1886, but a royal decree of 1899 strengthened it by classing night work for children under 12 years as "injurious," such work being thereby generally prohibited for them, though exceptions are admitted; at the same time it was laid down that children from 12 to 15 years might not be employed for more than 6 hours at night. The law of 1886 prohibits employment of children under 9 years in industry and under 10 years in underground mining. Night work for women was in Italy first prohibited by the law of the 19th of June 1902, and at the same time also for boys under 15, but this regulation was not to take full effect for 5 years as regards persons already so employed; by the same law persons under 15 and women of any age were accorded the claim to one day's complete rest of 24 hours in the week; the age of employment of children in factories, workshops, laboratories, quarries, mines, was raised to 12 years generally and 14 years for underground work; the labour of female workers of any age was prohibited in underground work, and power was reserved to further restrict and regulate their employment as well as that of male workers under 15. Spain and Italy, the former by the law of the 13th of March 1900, the latter by the law of the 19th of June 1902, prohibit the employment of women within a fixed period of childbirth; in Spain the limit is three weeks, in Italy one month, which may be reduced to three weeks on a medical certificate of fitness. Sunday rest is secured in industrial works, with regulated exceptions in Spain by the law of the 3rd of March 1904. It is in the direction of fencing and other safeguards against accidents and as regards sanitary provisions, both in industrial workplaces and in mines, that Italy has made most advance since her law of 1890 for prevention of accidents. Special measures for prevention of malaria are required in cultivation of rice by a ministerial circular of the 23rd of April 1903; work may not begin until an hour after sunrise and must cease an hour before sunset; children under 13 may not be employed in this industry. (A. M, An.) Entry: III

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 16, Slice 1 "L" to "Lamellibranchia"     1910-1911

_History of the Hospital Movement._--We have now to consider the principles upon which the provision of the best form of medical care in hospitals can be secured for all classes of people. Though hospitals cannot be claimed as a direct result of Christianity, no doubt it softened the relations between men, and gradually tended to instil humanitarian views and to make them popular with the civilized peoples of the world. These principles, as civilization grew, education improved, and the tastes and requirements of the common people were developed, made men and women of many races realize that the treatment of disease in buildings set apart exclusively for the care of the sick was, in fact, a necessity in urban districts. The establishment of a hospital freed the streets of the abuses attendant upon beggars and other poor creatures, who made their ailments the chief ground of appeal for alms. As the knowledge of hygiene and of the doctrine of cleanliness and purity in regard not only to dwellings and towns, but also in relation to food of all descriptions, including water, became known and appreciated, hospitals were found to be of even greater importance, if that is possible, to the healthy in crowded communities, than to the sick. It took many centuries before sound hygiene really began to occupy the position of importance which it is now known to possess, not only in regard to the treatment and cure of disease, but to its prevention and eradication. So the history of the world shows, that, whereas a few of the larger towns in most countries contained hospitals of sorts, up to and including the middle ages, it was not until the commencement of the 18th century that inhabitants of important but relatively small towns of from 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants began to provide themselves with a hospital for the care of the sick. Thus, twenty-three of the principal English counties appear to have had no general hospital prior to 1710, while London itself at that date, so far as the relief of the sick was concerned, was mainly, if not entirely, dependent upon St Bartholomew's and St Thomas's Hospitals. These facts are interesting to note, because we are enabled from them to deduce from recent events that hospital buildings in the past, though the planning of most of them was faulty to begin with and became more and more faulty as extensions were added to the original buildings, did in fact suffice to satisfy the requirements of the medical profession for nearly two centuries. In other words, under the old condition of affairs the life of a building devoted to the care of the sick might be considered as at least 150 years. To-day, under the conditions which modern science impose upon the management, probably few hospital buildings are likely to be regarded as efficient for the purpose of treating the sick for more than from 30 to 50 years. Entry: HOSPITAL

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 7 "Horticulture" to "Hudson Bay"     1910-1911

The main honey-gathering time (lasting about six or seven weeks) is so brief that in no pursuit is it more important to "make hay while the sun shines," and if the bee-keeper needs a reminder of this truism he surely has it in the example set by his bees. As the season advances and the flowers yield nectar more freely, visible signs of comb-building will be observed in the whitened edges of empty cells in the brood-chambers; the thoughtful workers are lengthening out the cells for honey-storing, and the bee-master takes the hint by giving room in advance, thus lessening the chance of undesired swarms. In other words, order and method, combined with the habit of taking time by the forelock, are absolutely necessary to the bee-keeper, seeing that the enormous army of workers under his control is multiplying daily by scores of thousands. As spring merges into summer, sunny days become more frequent; the ever-increasing breadth of bee-forage yields still more abundantly, and the excitement among the labourers crowding the hives increases, rendering room in advance, shade and ventilation, a _sine qua non_. It requires a level head to keep cool amongst a couple of hundred strong stocks of bees on a hot summer's day in a good honey season. Moreover, it will be too late to think of giving ventilation at noontide, when the temperature has risen to 80° F. in the shade; the necessary precautions for swarm prevention must therefore be taken in advance, for when what is known as the "swarming fever" once starts it is most difficult to overcome. Entry: A

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 5 "Bedlam" to "Benson, George"     1910-1911

At all events up to the year 1896, the development of arbitration and conciliation as methods of settling labour disputes in the United Kingdom was entirely independent of any legislation. Previously to the Conciliation Act of 1896 several attempts had been made by parliament to promote arbitration and conciliation, but with little or no practical result, and the act of 1896 repealed all previous legislation on the subject, at the same time excluding the operation of the Arbitration Act of 1889 from the settlement of "any difference or dispute to which this act applies." The laws repealed by the Conciliation Act need only a few words of mention. During the 18th century the fixing of wages by magistrates under the Elizabethan legislation gradually decayed, and acts of 1745 and 1757 gave summary jurisdiction to justices of the peace to determine disputes between masters and servants in certain circumstances, although no rate of wages had been fixed that year by the justices of the peace of the shire. These and other laws, relating specially to disputes in the cotton-weaving trade, were consolidated and amended by the Arbitration Act of 1824. This act seems chiefly to have been aimed at disputes relating to piece-work in the textile trades, though applicable to other disputes arising out of a wages contract. It expressly excluded, however, the fixing of a rate of wages or price of labour or workmanship at which the workmen should in future be paid unless with the mutual consent of both master and workmen. The act gave compulsory powers of settling the disputes to which it relates on application of either party to a court of arbitrators representing employers and workmen nominated by a magistrate. The award could be enforced by distress or imprisonment. The act was subsequently amended in detail, and by the "Councils of Conciliation" Act of 1867 power was given to the home secretary to license "equitable councils of conciliation and arbitration" equally representative of masters and workmen, who should thereupon have the powers conferred by the act of 1824. The act contains provisions for the appointment of conciliation committees, and other details which are of little interest seeing that the act was never put into operation. Another amendment of the act of 1824 was made by the Arbitration (Masters and Workmen) Act of 1872, which contemplated the conclusion of agreements between employers and employed, designating some board of arbitration by which disputes included within the scope of the former acts should be determined. A master or workman should be deemed to be bound by an agreement under the act, if he accepted a printed copy of the agreement and did not repudiate it within forty-eight hours. Like the previous legislation, however, the act of 1872 was inoperative. The evidence given before the Royal Commission on Labour (1891-1894) disclosed the existence of a considerable body of opinion in favour of some further action by the state for the prevention or settlement of labour disputes, and some impetus was given to the movement by the settlement through official mediation of several important disputes, e.g. the great coal-miners' dispute of 1893 by a conference presided over by Lord Rosebery, the cab-drivers' dispute of 1894 by the mediation of the home secretary (H.H. Asquith), and the boot and shoe trade dispute of 1895 by a Board of Trade conference under the chairmanship of Sir Courtenay Boyle. In these, and a few other less important cases, the intervention of the Board of Trade or other department took place without any special statutory sanction. The Conciliation Act passed in 1896 was framed with a view to giving express authorization to such action in the future. Entry: ARBITRATION

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 4 "Aram, Eugene" to "Arcueil"     1910-1911