258 Advantages of Studying the Mechanism of Animals. [Book III.

choked, the parts around them become diseased, like sterile land for want of nourishment; does the pump itself stop working, we instantly die. The regularity and irregularity of its motions are indicated by the pulse, which has always been adopted as the unerring criterion of health and disease, or as an engineer would say, the number of its strokes per minute, is the proof of its state whether in good or bad working order. The pulse not only indicates incidental disorders in this hydraulic machine, but is a criterion of its age, as well as of its constant condition: the movements are strong and uniform in youth, feeble and uncertain in sickness and age, and as the machine wears out and the period of its labor approaches, its strokes at last cease and its vibrations are then silent for ever.

What mechanic can contemplate this surprising machine without being electrified with astonishment that it should last so long as it does in some people! Formed of materials so easily injured, and connected with tubes of the most delicate texture, whose ramifications are too complex to be traced, their numbers too great to be counted, and many of them too minute to be perceived, and the orifices of all furnished with elaborate valves; that such complicated machinery should continue incessantly in motion, sixty, eighty, and a hundred years, not only without our aid, but in spite of obstructions that are daily thrown in its way, is as inexplicable and mysterious as the power that impels it.

Few classes of men are more interested in studying natural history, and particularly the structure, habits, and movements of animals, than mechanics; and none can reap a richer reward for the time and labor expended upon it. It presents to the studious inquirer sources of mechanical combinations and movements so varied, so perfect, so novel, and such as are adapted to every possible contingency, as to excite emotions of surprise that they should have been so long neglected. There is no doubt that several modern discoveries in pneumatics, hydraulics, hydrostatics, optics, mechanics, and even of chemistry, might have been anticipated by the study of this department of science. Of this truth examples might be adduced from every art, and from every branch of engineering: the flexible water-mains (composed of iron tubes united by a species of ball and socket joint) by which Watt conveyed fresh water under the river Clyde were suggested by the mechanism of a lobster's tail-the process of tunneling by which Brunel has formed a passage under the Thames occurred to him by witnessing the operations of the Teredo, a testaceous worm covered with a cylindrical shell, which eats its way through the hardest wood— and Smeaton, in seeking the form best adapted to impart stability to the light-house on the Eddystone rocks, imitated the contour of the bole of a The fishermen's boats of Europe, adapted to endure the roughest weather, are the very model of those formed for her progeny by the female gnat; "elevated and narrow at each end, and broad and depressed at the middle"-the beaver when building a dam-but it is vain to quote examples with which volumes might be filled.

tree.

Chap. 3.]

Forcing Pumps with solid Pistons.

259

CHAPTER III.

Forcing Pumps with solid pistons: The Syringe: Its uses, materials and antiquity-Employed by the Hindoos in religious festivals-Figured on an old coat of arms-Simple Garden Pump-Single valve Forcing-pump-Common Forcing-pump-Stomach pump-Forcing-pump with air-vessel-Machine of Ctesibius: Its description by Vitruvius-Remarks on its origin-Errors of the ancients respecting the authors of several inventions-Claims of Ctesibius to the pump limited-Air vessel probably invented by him-Compressed air a prominent feature in all his inventions-Air vessels-In Heron's fountain-Apparently referred to by Pliny-Air gun of Ctesibius-The Hookah.

THE earliest machine consisting of a cylinder and piston that was expressly designed to force liquids was probably the syringe, an instrument of very high antiquity: see its figure in the foreground of the next illustration. To the closed end a short conical pipe is attached whose dimensions are adapted to the particular purpose for which the instrument is to be used. The piston is solid and covered with a piece of soft leather, hemp, woollen listing, or any similar substance that readily imbibes moisture, in order to prevent air or water from passing between it and the sides of the cylinder. When the end of the pipe is placed in a liquid and the piston drawn back, the atmosphere drives the liquid into the cylinder; whence it is expelled through the same orifice by pushing the piston down: in the former case the syringe acts as a sucking pump; in the latter as a forcing one. They are chiefly employed in surgical operations, for which they are made of various dimensions-from the size of a quart bottle to that of a quill. They are formed of silver, brass, pewter, glass, and sometimes of wood. For some purposes the small pipe is dispensed with, the end of the cylinder being closed by a perforated plate, as in those instruments with which gardeners syringe their plants.

It has been said that the syringe was invented by Ctesibius, being the result of his first essays in devising or improving the pump; but such could not have been its origin, since it is mentioned by philosophers who flourished centuries before him. It was known to Theophrastus, Anaxagoras, Democritus, Leucippus, Aristotle, and their pupils to the rushing of water into it when the piston was drawn up, these philosophers appealed to illustrate their opposite views respecting the cause of the liquid's ascent, some contending that it proved the existence of a vacuum, others that it did not. To this ancient application of the syringe, most of the early writers on atmospheric pressure allude." "It is pretty strange [observes Desaguliers] that the ancients, who were no strangers to the nature of winds, and knew a great deal of their force, were yet entirely ignorant of the weight and perpendicular pressure of the air. This is evident, because they attribute the cause of water rising up in pumps, or any liquors being drawn up into syringes (commonly called syphons on that account, while pumps were call'd sucking-pumps) to nature's abhorrence of a vacuum; saying, that it fill'd up with water the pipes of pumps under the moving bucket or piston, rather than suffer any empty space. The syringe was in use, and this notion concerning its suction obtain'd long before Ctesibius, the son of a barber at Alexandria, invented the pump." "b

See Rohault's Philosophy with Clarke's Notes. Lon. 1723; vol. i. 172. Switzer's Hydrostatics, Preface and 172. Chambers' Dict. Articles Syringe, Embolus, Vacuum. Ex. Philos. vol. ii, 249.

260

The Syringe,

[Book III. There is reason to believe that the syringe was employed by the Egyptians in the process of embalming. In various translations of the account given by Herodotus (Euterpe, 87) it is expressly named: "They fill a syringe with germe of cedar wood and inject it."a Dr. Rees, in his edition of Chambers' Dictionary, (Art. Embalming,) uses the terms "infusing by a syringe," and "syringing a liquid," &c. The least expensive mode of embalming was "infusing by a syringe a certain liquid extracted from the cedar."b Beloe, in his translation, does not indicate the instrument used-they "inject an unguent made from the cedar." As clysters originated in Egypt, and were used monthly by the inhabitants as a preservative of health, (Herod. ii, 77,) we are most probably indebted to the people of that country for the syringe. Had it been a Grecian or Roman invention, the name of its author would have been known, for from its utility and application to various useful purposes, an account of the circumstances connected with its origin was as worthy of preservation, as those relating to the pump or any other machine. Suetonius uses the term "clyster" to denote the instrument by which it was administered; and Celsus by it, refers to "a little pipe or squirt." (Ainsworth.) Hippocrates and the elder Pliny frequently mention clysters, but without describing distinctly the instrument employed: the latter in his 30th book, cap. 7, seems to refer to the common pewter syringe, "an instrument or pipe of tin:" this is at least probable, for pewter, according to Whittaker, was borrowed from the Romans. It is well ascertained that pewterers were among the earliest workers of metal in England. A company of them was incorporated in 1474; but at what time the syringe became a staple article of their manufacture is uncertain.

No. 115. Syringes used by Hindoos in celebrating some religious festivals.

Had the syringe not been mentioned by ancient authors, its antiquity might be inferred from a particular employment of it by the Hindoos. The arts, manners and customs of these people have remained unchanged from very remote times; and such is their predilection for the religious institutions of their ancestors, that nothing has, and apparently nothing can induce them to admit of the slightest change in the ceremonies that pertain to the worship of their deities: hence the same rites are still performed,

Chap. 3.]

And its Applications.

261

and by means of the same kind of instruments as when Alexander or even Bacchus invaded India. In some of their religious festivals the syringe is made to perform a prominent part; for a red powder is mixed with water, with which the worshipers "drench one another by means of a species of squirt; to represent Parasou Rama, or some other hero returning from battle covered with blood." Some writers suppose the ceremony is designed to celebrate "the orgies of Krishna with his mistresses and companions." No. 115 represents a rajah and some of his wives engaged in this singular species of religious worship and connubial exercise, in honor of Krishna. The instruments are clearly garden syringes, and probably of the same kind as are mentioned by Heron of Alexandria, as used in his time for sprinkling and dispersing water.

The Hohlee is another Hindoo festival which resembles in some measure the Saturnalia of the Romans. It is observed through all Hindostan, and in celebrating it, the syringe is put in requisition. Mr. Broughton, who, with some other Europeans, visited a Mahratta rajah to witness the ceremony, observes-" A few minutes after we had taken our seats, large brass trays filled with abeer, and the little balls already described were brought in and placed before the company, together with a yellow-coloured water, and a large silver squirt for each individual. The Muha Raj himself began the amusements of the day, by sprinkling a little red and yellow water upon us from the goolabdans, small silver vessels kept for the purpose of sprinkling rose-water at visits of ceremony. Every one then began to throw about the abeer, and to squirt at his neighbour as he pleased." (Shoberl's Hind. vol. ii, 241, and vol. vi, 14.) A somewhat similar custom prevails in Pegu. At the feast of waters, the king, nobles, and all the people sport themselves by throwing water upon one another; and "it is impossible to pass the streets without being soundly wet." (Ovington's Voyage to Surat in the year 1689. Lon. 1696: page 597.)

The syringe in front of No. 115, is copied from Rivius' German Translation of Vitruvius, A. D. 1548. It is from a view of the barber's shop belonging to the father of Ctesibius. (See pp. 121 and 122 of this volume.) Across the shop is a partition, behind which the young philosopher is seen intently perusing a book, and on the floor around him are a flute, a syringe, a pair of bellows, bagpipes, &c.; while in front, the old gentleman in the European costume of the 16th century, and with a sword at his side! is actively engaged in purifying the head and face of a customer.

In the third volume of a Collection of "Emblems, Human and Divine" in Latin Prague, 1601, page 76, a pair of bellows, a syringe, and a flying eolipile are represented as forming the device of some old Italian family, with the singular motto, " Todo est viento."

Few ancient devices could be pointed out that have given rise to more important improvements in the arts than the primitive syringe. Its modifications exert an extensive and beneficial influence in society. As a piston bellows it is still extensively used in oriental smitheries-and as the same, it contributed to one of the most refined pleasures of the ancients, by supplying wind to their organs. It may be considered as the immediate parent of the forcing if not of the atmospheric pump-in both of which it has greatly increased the comforts and conveniencies of civilized life; in the fire-engine it protects both our lives and our property from the most destructive of the elements; and in the hands of the surgeon and physician it extends the duration of life by removing disease. The modern philosophical apparatus for exhausting air, and the ancient one for condensing it; the mammoth blowing machines in our founderies, and the-steam engine itself, are all modifications of the syringe.

262

Single-Valve Forcing Pumps.

[Book III. A forcing pump differs but little from a syringe: the latter receives and expels a liquid through the same passage, but the former has a separate pipe for its discharge, and both the receiving and discharging orifices are covered with valves. By this arrangement it is not necessary to remove a pump from the liquid to transfer the contents of its cylinder, as is done with the syringe, but the operation of forcing up water may be continuous while the instrument is immoveable. A forcing pump, therefore, is merely a syringe furnished with an induction and eduction valve one through which water enters the cylinder, the other by which it escapes from it. Of the process or reasoning which led to the application of valves to the syringe, history is silent; but as has been remarked in a previous chapter, their employment in bellows or air forcing machines, probably opened the way to their introduction into water forcing ones. The ordinary bellows has but one valve, and the simplest and most ancient forcing pumps have no more. One of these is shown at No. 116. It represents a syringe

having the orifice at the bottom of the cylinder covered by a valve or clack, opening upwards; and a discharging pipe connected to the cylinder a little above it: when placed in water the orifice of this pipe is closed with the finger, and the piston being then drawn up, the cylinder becomes charged, and when the piston is pushed down the valve closes and the liquid is forced through the pipe. In this machine the finger performs the part of a valve by preventing air from entering the cylinder when the piston is being raised. Such pumps made of tin plate were formerly common, and were used to wash windows, syringe plants and garden trees, &c. The figure is from plate 57 of "L'Exploiter des Mines," in ARTS ET METIERS, and is described (page 1584) as a Dutch pump, "pour envoyer commodément de l'eau dans les différents quartiers de l'attelier."

No. 116.

No. 117 is another single-valve forcing pump from the second volume of a Latin treatise on Natural Philosophy, by P. P. Steinmeyer, Friburgh, 1767. It is secured in a cistern, the surface of the water in which is always kept above the small openings made through the upper part; so that when the piston is drawn up, as in the figure, the liquid flows in and fills it; and on the descent of the piston the water is forced up the ascending pipe, the valve preventing its return. This is a very simple and efficient forcing pump; and having no induction valve and the piston being always under water, it is not very liable to derangement. It has, however, its defects; for in elevating the piston the whole weight of the atmosphere above it has to be overcome, a disadvantage that in large machines would not be compensated by the saving of a valve. As the piston has to pass the holes in the upper part of the cylinder, its packing would be injured if their inner edges were not rounded off. This pump has been erroneously attributed to a modern European engineer: see the London Register of Arts, v, 154, and Journal of the Franklin Institute, viii, 379.