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very early drove the Norman masters of England to seek fresh adventures, fresh conquests. Before their power in England was consolidated, before they had had time to push their authority into the heart of Scotland, they looked greedily across the water which divided their newly-gotten kingdom from the kingdoms of Ireland, and they resolved to win in them a settlement as absolute and abiding as that they had obtained in England. Lust of power, of acquisition, rather than any far-sighted views of statesmanship, prompted the first invaders of Ireland to undertake their work, and they entered upon it in a spirit wholly in accordance with the motives that actuated them.

The conquest of Ireland was on this wise:-It had been agreed in 1161, after many trials of strength between the several Irish princes, that Murtogh O'Lochlin, King of Ulster, should be recognised as supreme in the island. He was nominally what was then called a suzerain, as distinguished from a sovereign; that is to say, he was feudal lord over his brethren by their own consent-a first among equals," but not absolute dominator, except in his own kingdom of Ulster. The princes who consented to this arrangement were four in number-the kings of Munster, Connaught, Leinster, and Meath, each of whom had vassals under them more or less troublesome, who made their sovereignty as permissive a dignity as the four kings made the dignity of Murtogh O'Lochlin. Of course, a throne resting on such explosive materials must have been but an anxious place, not to say an unsafe one. The broils which had only been temporarily suppressed through the effect of exhaustion in the combatants, broke out again as soon as strength had been renewed, and all was commotion in the kingdom of Erin. Fighting for fighting's sake was sufficient inducement, when all other causes failed, to make the princes take up arms; and the only wonder is how the people subsisted at all in a country which was ravaged with fire and sword all over on an average once a year. Domestic peace within the limits of the lesser kingdoms themselves was a thing unknown; the vassals were too nearly equal for jealousy not to show itself in action; and combined, they were more than a match for their kings. This was proved in the case of Murtogh O'Lochlin himself, who having waged war on one of his vassals in a perfectly barbarous way, having put out his eyes, and slain his most intimate friends in cold blood, roused by his acts so great a resistance on the part of his other subjects, that he was overthrown and killed in a battle, on the issue of which he had staked his fortune.

On his death in 1166, the nominal sovereignty of Erin passed to Roderic O'Connor, King of Connaught, a savage, whose first act, on coming to his father's throne in Connaught, was to put out the eyes of his two brothers, lest they should be troublesome as competitors. He is also famous for having killed with his own hand an enemy whom he had had loaded with chains, and who was defenceless through his fetters at the time the king struck him. Such a man was not likely to have a peaceable time of it, and his reign proved to be such a turmoil and confusion as to tempt the intervention of a foreign foe.

Dermot Mac-Murchad, King of Leinster, a bloodthirsty and licentious barbarian, had, during the reign of the late suzerain, conducted himself so infamously as to excite universal hatred and disgust against him, except on the part of the suzerains who were his dear friends and intimates. He had carried on an adulterous intercourse with the wife of a neighbouring and friendly prince, Tiernan O'Ruarc, the Lord of Breffny, in Connaught, an act which caused the direst commotion, and was the beginning of sorrows for all Ireland; for it became as fruitful a source of quarrel as the abduction of Helen from her husband Menelaus, and was the root of bitterness which sprang up and finally choked the fair flower of Irish independence. So long as O'Lochlin was on the throne this bad man had a friend, and gloried in his shame shamelessly; but with Roderic O'Connor, though he was what he was, came a very different ruler. O'Connor was friendly to the lord of Breffny, and espoused his cause immediately on coming to the throne. Under his auspices a rebellion was fomented in Dermot's own kingdom of Leinster. Tiernan O'Ruare took the field with a large force raised in his own dominions, and recruited by numerous bands of men whom Dermot's brutality and tyranny had embittered against him. In a short time Dermot was driven to his last covert, and was then obliged to fly for succour to the King of England.

Now, at the time he did so, Henry II. was in Normandy, wholly absorbed in his great struggle between Church and State, represented by Thomas à Becket and himself; and it is reasonable to suppose that he did not at the moment care very much for the visitor who came to him with such importunate requests for help in a matter where the King of England's interests were not concerned. The application of the Irish prince, however, was not to be rejected summarily; the sound of it recalled to the mind of the great statesman who then sat on the English throne a plan he had long ago thought over, but, for want of opportunity, had lain aside. Eleven years before-that is to say, in 1155-he had obtained from Pope Adrian IV. (the only Englishman who ever sat in the chair of St. Peter) a Papal bull, granting him the lordship of Ireland with full possession of the country, the Pope claiming, and Henry for the nonce admitting, a right in the Pope to dispose of the whole of Christendom as lord paramount. At the time of the grant it had not suited Henry to take the matter in hand; he had other irons in the fire, and even now it was highly inconvenient to have to stir hurriedly in it. Still, a wandering Irish prince driven from his home, and ready to agree to any conditions so long as he was restored and his enemies were punished, was not a sight that presented itself every day; and the astute mind of Henry saw at once the advisability of securing a pretext for his interference, which he would do under guise of helping a neighbouring potentate to his own. Once in Ireland-if with a decent excuse all the better-his plan was never to loosen his hold on it; to make it his either by playing off one petty prince against another, and making the winner recognise him for lord, or else, if needs must, though he did not want the trouble, by regular conquest of the island.

Unable to quit Aquitaine, where Dermot found him, and where certain disputes with the barons, together with the trouble respecting Becket, detained him, Henry gave the Irish prince letters recommendatory to the English nobles, and issued this proclamation in his behalf :-" Henry, King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Earl of Anjou, to all his liege menn-English, Norman, Welsh, and Scotch-and to all the nations under his dominion, sends greeting. As soon as the present letters shall come to your hands, know that Dermot, Prince of Leinster, has been received into the bosom of our grace and benevolence. Wherefore whosever, within the ample extent of our territories, shall be willing to lend aid towards the resto ration of this prince, as our faithful and liege subject, let such person know that we do hereby grant to him, for such purpose, our licence and favour."

Armed with this proclamation, Dermot came over to England and hastened to Bristol, where he expected to find those who would lend a willing hand to his enterprise, thus backed by the king; but few of the English nobles had ever heard of him until the present moment, and fewer still were inclined to risk any thing in a cause where the question was between barbarism on both sides, and where the issue seemed to promise little profit to assistants. No one who had anything to lose, or who had anything better with which to occupy himself, would listen to the Irish prince, who was driven, therefore, to apply to men of desperate fortunes; and such men there were then as now, and as there always will be, ready for anything which holds out the slightest hope of mending their broken condition. Such a man was Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, commonly known in history as Strongbow. Dermot promised to give him his daughter Eva in marriage, and to secure him the succession, after himself, to the throne of Leinster, on condition of his bringing over an efficient force to Ireland in the following spring. Strongbow assented, and Dermot was fortunate enough to secure in anticipation of his coming, the services of Maurice Fitz-Gerald and Robert Fitz-Stephen, brothers, and adventurers by birth and profession. These agreed to come over as early in the spring as they could; and Dermot having made his preparations, went secretly to Ireland, and remained concealed for a time in the neighbourhood of Ferns.

A foolish and premature outburst of his, made before his allies could join him, nearly proved to be his ruin, and brought his old enemy, Tiernan O'Ruarc, and Roderio O'Connor, titular monarch of Erin, down upon him. He lay at their mercy, which he experienced on condition of renouncing for ever his rights in Leinster, except to a small territory not more than sufficient to support the dignity of a lesser baron. He accepted the con

dition, but he purposed while doing so only to gain time till his English friends should be ready to join him.

In May, 1169, Robert Fitz-Stephen, accompanied by Hervey de Montemarisco, a relative of the Earl of Pembroke, and by 30 knights, 60 men-at-arms, and 300 archers, landed in the creek Bann, near Wexford, and were the first Anglo-Normans that had appeared in Ireland as invaders. They were immediately joined by Maurice de Prendergast, a Welsh knight, with 10 men-at-arms and 60 archers. Dermot, with 500 men, all he could collect, hastened to meet them, and the united forces, numbering not more than a thousand men, instantly marched upon Wexford, which capitulated after making a fair show of resistance. From Wexford, Dermot took his friends to Ferns, where they rested three weeks, the Irish princes taking no steps to molest them, or to delay their progress; and from Ferns they went on a marauding expedition into Ossory, to allow of Dermot revenging himself on Mac-GillaPatrick, prince of the district, who had caused the eyes of Dermot's son to be rooted out. Ossory was ravaged with fire and sword, the bravest exertions of the people being of no avail against disciplined and armour-clad troops; and it was only when Dermot was tired of slaughter, and when his allies found that the Irish princes were at length making a move against them, that the poor people ceased from being vexed. At Tara, Roderic O'Connor convened a council of all the Irish princes, and marched thence with a large but tumultuous army to Dublin. At Dublin, divisions sprang up among the chiefs, some of the most powerful of whom withdrew themselves from the league and went home, leaving the national cause to itself, or not believing that there was really any national cause at stake.

At Ferns, Dermot entrenched himself, assisted by the skill and science of his Anglo-Norman allies; and when Roderic came with forces outnumbering the strangers by about thirty to one, he found himself unable to act on the offensive against them. He tried negotiation with Dermot, and with the English commanders separately, endeavouring to detach them from each other by appeals to their respective interests. But the confederates compared notes, and the treachery of Roderic returned edgeways into his own bosom. He was compelled, in spite of his great army, to make terms with the rebel, to promise him recognition as sovereign prince of Leinster, and to do the like by his heirs afterwards. Dermot was left free to follow his own inclinations, and he accordingly marched with his allies, reinforced by Maurice Fitz-Gerald and a small following, to Dublin, which had thrown off its duty to him, and which was now made to pay by rivers of blood for its temerity, being only saved from utter destruction by the wish of Dermot to turn his arms northward, where the King of Munster was fighting on unequal terms with O'Connor of Connaught.

LESSONS IN BOTANY.-XVI. SECTION XXIX.-CUCURBITACEE, OR THE CUCUMBER

TRIBE.

THIS natural order is allied by many characteristics to the passion-flower, for which reason we treat of it in this place. Characteristics: Flowers monoecious, dioecious, or polygamous; calyx with tube adherent to ovary; stamens free, or monadelphous, or triadelphous; anthers turning outwards; ovary three to five, rarely one-carpelled; seed dicotyledonous, exalbuminous; stem uniformly herbaceous, climbing leaves alternate, palminerved, each furnished with a lateral stipule; inflorescence, axillary. If we compare the parts of the flower of a common cucumber flower with those of a passion-flower, a similarity in many respects will be found to hold good. Like the passion-flower, the calyx has the colour of petals; like the passion-flower, there is the same growing together of stamens;, like the passionflower, the ovary has one cavity, and the arrangement of seeds within the ovary is similar. Moreover, both orders yield fruits which are juicy. These are strong resemblances. Let us now examine the parts in which the two natural orders are dissimilar. In the first place, then, on referring to our characteristics of the order, we find that the flowers in the tribe Cucurbitacea are monoecious, or dicecious, or polygamous, which means that some flowers are male and others female; the male and the female flowers sometimes exist on the same plant, sometimes on different plants, and at other times on both. In this important particular, then, the Cucurbitaceae differ from the natural order we have just finished considering. Moreover, the cucumber has very rough leaves, which the passion-flower has not; the cucumber has an inferior ovary, the passion-flower a superior; the passion-flower has rays, the cucumber flower has none. Nor does the distinction between the two natural families end with a mere difference of form and parts. The chemical character of their secretions, as we shall find by-and-by, differs also. The passion-flower tribe are uniformly harmless as regards every part except their root, whereas every member of the cucumber order contains a poison. The cucumber, or gourd family, occurs naturally in all tropical and sub-tropical regions; its members are more rare in temperate climes, but the shortness of their life, usually limited to one summer, admits of the cultivation in Europe of many tropical species.

In

The greater number, if not all the members of the tribe Cucurbitacea, contain a bitter poisonous principle presenting many degrees of intensity. In the colocynth it attains its maximum, and, being extracted, furnishes us with a valuable medicine. In the ordinary cucumber the poisonous bitter principle is usually but little developed; never to the extent of being dangerous, although frequently enough to be disagreeable. the melon, sugar is the principal secretion; nevertheless, the bitter principle so prevalent in the family is not wanting; it exists in the outside rind of the fruit, and to a still greater extent in the roots, which are violently emetic. Colocynth haз already been mentioned. Bryonia, another species, is still more violent in its action. The common cucumber (Cucumis sativus), although capable of growing in the open air of our climate, is a native of India and Tartary. The species called Dudaim is cultivated in Turkey on account of the delicious odour of its fruit, which, however, is possessed of an insipid taste. Gourds are certain species of Cucurbitacea with very large fruit. Although our garden cucumber possesses no great claims to beauty, it is otherwise with certain species. The Cucumis Pem-momordica, for example, is a very beautiful Indian plant, the leaves and fruit of which differ in external appearance from almost every species of the Cucurbitacea (Fig. 153). beautiful than extraordinary is the species called Trichosanthes colubrina (Fig. 156), the fruit of which resembles huge serpents hanging from the parent stem. It is a native of Central America; its leaves are more than a foot in diameter, and its flowers disposed in corymbs; the corolla is white, and bordered by a long hair-like fringe; hence the specific term Trichosanthes, which means, in Greek, hairy-flowered.

Allying himself with the King of Munster, Dermot drove Roderic back into his own dominions, and finding himself so strong, resolved to set up a claim to be sovereign of all Erin. At this juncture Raymond le Gros, in command of the vanguard of the Earl of Pembroke, arrived at a place near Waterford, and being joined by Hervey de Montemarisco, succeeded in establishing himself in a fort near Waterford, of which city the inhabitants made some resolute but vain attempts to oust the strangers, who, in return, made some direful attacks on the Waterford folk; and on one occasion put to death seventy of their chief men, prisoners, in cold blood, and in the most diabolical manner. Three months afterwards the Earl of broke himself, in spite of a positive order from his king, which reached him at Milford Haven as he was about to embark, and which forbade him to proceed, came over to Waterford with 200 knights, 1,000 archers, and a large supply of stores and provisions.

Raymond le Gros joined his master, and the earl, knowing that if he wanted to justify by success his disregard of King Henry's orders, he must lose no time in setting to work, gave orders for an immediate attack on Waterford. The city was carried by assault, and then Dermot came, gave the earl his daughter Eva in marriage then and there, and consulted with his too-powerful son-in-law as to their course for the future. Dublin, which had again revolted, was to be reduced. Thither marched the foreigners, and took it easily, filling its streets and houses with death and destruction.

Less

The Ecbalium agreste-a plant better known as the wild cucumber, or squirting cucumber-is cultivated at Mitcham, in Surrey, for the sake of a peculiar drug called elaterium, which is yielded by its fruit. The fruit, after it has fallen from its stalk, possesses the curious property of expelling its seeds through the hole in which the stalk was inserted. The drug

itself is obtained from a thick green mucus that surrounds the
seeds. This mucus is collected from the fruit when it is nearly
ripe, and after being allowed to stand for a short time, it be-
comes turbid and deposits a sediment, which, when it has been
dried, is known as elaterium. It is a powerful purgative and
irritant, and has an
acid taste. The
Bryonia dioica, or
common bryony, is
a plant which fur-
nishes one of the
principal medicines
used in homœo-
pathy. It is indi-
genous to England,
and is found in al-
most every hedge-
row in the southern
and western coun-
ties, attracting no-
tice by its pretty-
looking bunches of
scarlet berries and
its beautifully-
formed cordate
palmate leaves. It
must not be con-
founded with the
black bryony, or
Tamus communis,
another plant used
by homœopathic
practitioners. This
belongs to a diffe-
rent natural order,
namely, Dioscore-
acea. It has long,

will be seen, are alternate, which, in this family, constitutes an important generic distinction.

Let us now observe the flowers (Fig. 159). We find them to consist of a calyx in one piece or sepal; hence the flower is monosepalous. We find, moreover, that the calyx is furnished with five tooth-like projections, which would have resulted in the generation of five different sepals, had the progress of indentation gone far enough.

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153. ELATERIUM-LIKE GOURD (CUCUMIS MOMORDICA).

twining stems and bunches of red berries; but its leaves, although they are cordate, are not divided into lobes like those of the common bryony. They are of a dark-green colour, almost approaching to black.

SECTION XXX.-SOLANACEA, OR THE NIGHTSHADE

TRIBE.

The corolla, also, consists of one part or petal; hence the flower is said to be monopetalous. Our second diagram (Fig. 158) represents one of these flowers cut open in such a manner that the mode of insertion of the stamens is evident. Like the calyx, the corolla is also five dentated. Remark, now, how the stamens are attached. They spring from between the dentated processes or lobes of the corolla; and this is invariable for all the genera and spe

cies of the Solanacea, serving to distinguish their members from those of the Primulacea, or the primrose tribe. If the reader examine the construction of a primrose, he will find what we say to be true.

If we now proceed from the flower to the ovary, and transversely divide it, two separate cells may be observed, each of Characteristics: Calyx free; corolla regular: stamens inserted which contains a number of ovules (Fig. 160). This ovary, on the tube of the corolla, their number equal to that of the divisions, and alternating with them. Anthers bursting longitudinally, rarely by pores, at the apex; ovary two-celled; style continuous; stigma simple; pericarp with twenty-four or many cells; either a capsule with a double dissepiment parallel with the valves, or a berry with placentæ adhering to the dissepiment; herbaceous plants or shrubs; leaves alternate, undivided, or lobed; inflorescence variable, often axillary; pedicels without bracts.

In the above description of the characters of plants belonging to the tribe Solanaceae, the term "dissepiment," from the Latin di or dis, apart, and sepes, a hedge, is applied to the partitions that divide the cells of the ovary from one another.

154. THE MANDRAKE (MANDRAGORA
OFFICINALIS.)

When we inform the reader that the nightshade, henbane, tobacco, stramonium, and the mandrake plant, all belong to this natural order, we state enough to convey to him a general impression concerning the Solanaceae. It is a highly dangerous family, although one that ministers to our sustenance in the potato, and to the comfort of many in the tobacco.

The best flower the reader can select for making himself acquainted with the characteristics of the Solanacea will be that common deadly nightshade. Let it be procured ched, for they merit observation. The leaves, it

155, FRUIT OF THE
STRAMONIUM.

when ripe, constitutes the fruit, a small two-celled black berry. If a seed be transversely divided, the embryo will be observed coiled up within it, and is therefore said by botanists to be curved (Fig. 161). Finally, the most essential characteristics of the Nightshade tribe are superior twocelled ovary, regular flower, and alternate leaves. The latter peculiarity distinguishes them from the Gentian tribe, with which their appearance in other respects is almost identical.

Numbers of the numerous family of the Solanaceae chiefly belong to the tropics, very few species being natives of temperate regions, and none existing in either northsouthern frigid zone. Nearly all, if not all, the species of the Solanaceae contain a poison of a narcotic kind. Even that useful solanaceous plant, the The fruits are noto

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ern

or

potato, is not entirely free from poison.
riously poisonous, and even the juice of raw potatoes is in-
jurious. Nevertheless, the potato, as we all know, is highly
nutritious. This arises from the starch and gluten which
it contains being mingled with so little of the poisonous
principle that the latter is destroyed by the cooking process to
which potatoes are subjected before being eaten. The egg-plant
is one of the Solanaceae, so in like manner is the tomata; both
are occasionally eaten; the latter, indeed, frequently; by the

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relates that, on a certain occasion, the Benedictine monks of the convent of Rhinon were presented with a salad in which the sliced root of chicory, as was thought, had been placed. Instead, however, of chicory, the root was of henbane. After the repast, the monks went to bed. Symptoms of poisoning soon commenced; the monks were all stupefied. The time for matins or morning prayers arrived, and one monk was so fast asleep that his fellows supposed him to be dying, and under this impression administered to him extreme unction. The other monks

Spaniards, almost universally. They are both, however, injurious exhales a repulsive odour. Its corolla is palish-yellow, veined if eaten raw. We may here remark, in connection with the with purple. The Hyoscyamus, or henbane, owes its narcotic potato, that the vegetable substance, starch, is largely diffused properties to the presence of a peculiar alkali. The action of throughout many poisonous plants, yet, when separated from henbane is far less powerful than that of belladonna; neverthem, it is invariably harmless. Of this we have a remarkable | theless, it may cause death if eaten. A German physician example in tapioca, which is nothing else than the baked starch extracted from the trunk of a tree, the Jatropha Manihot. The juice of the tree is so poisonous that arrows are poisoned with it; nevertheless, tapioca is a delicate article of food. The common deadly nightshade (Atropa Belladonna) grows in shady places, and is an elegant, though dangerous-looking plant. Here, as a general rule, we may remark that most plants having dark-green foliage and dark-coloured flowers are poisonous. The belladonna bears a cherry-like fruit, which is sometimes incautiously eaten by children, and too often with a fatal result. In 1793, some orphans, brought up at the Hospice de la Piété, at Paris, were employed in weeding a botanical garden. They happened to be attracted by the tempting-looking fruit of a belladonna plant, of which they ate a considerable quantity. Fourteen of those unfortunate children died in consequence only a few hours afterwards. This lamentable catastrophe justifies the generic name Atropa, from Atropos, one of the Fates, who was supposed to cut the thread of life. The specific name, Belladonna, signifies beautiful lady, and is dependent on the circumstance that the Italian ladies use the distilled water of this plant as a cosmetic. They fancy it improves their complexions. The active principle of belladonna chiefly resides in the leaves and in the root. Chemists term it Atropine or Atropa.

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went to chapel, but they had much better have stayed away; some of them could not even open their eyes, much less read. The vision of others was so disordered that they thought insects were crawling over their books, and employed themselves in blowing and brushing the intruders off. Others, instead of praying, and uttered nonsense. In the end, all the monks got well, even the one supposed to be dead; but one poor individual, a tailor, could not thread his needle for a long time afterwards, so disordered was the state of his vision. Instead of one needle the tailor saw three, and as he could not tell the real needle from its ghostlike duplicates, there was slight chance of threading it. This anecdote makes known better than any formal description the physiological action of henbane.

156. SNAKE GOURD (TRICHOSANTHES COLUBRINA).
157. BLOSSOM OF THE SNAKE GOURD.

The mandrake (Fig. 154) is a species very nearly allied to the belladonna; and it grows in the south of Europe, and in dark places. This plant, known and celebrated from times of very great antiquity, was employed by the so-called sorcerers of ancient times to produce narcotism and disordered visions. Its roots are large, often two-pronged, whence the fancied resemblance to the lower limbs of a man. It is supposed that the mandrakes mentioned in some parts of the Old Testament were not the same as the plant which is known to us by this name, but that, under this term, reference is made to the fragrant but insipid frait of the Cucumis dudaim, which, as we have already said in our remarks on the

159

The stramonium (Fig. 155) is another of the Nightshade tribe (Datura stramonium). It is an annual, and was unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, although now common enough, having been brought from Central Asia in the Middle Ages by that wandering race, the Gipsies. Its active principle is called daturine, which exists in the leaves and the seeds. This prin

158. ENLARGED REPRESENTATION OF FLOWER OF DEADLY
NIGHTSHADE CUT OPEN. 159. CALYX, OVARY, AND STYLE
OF DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. 160. TRANSVERSE SECTION
OF OVARY. 161. CURVED OVULE OF DEADLY NIGHTSHADE.

Cucurbitacea, is cultivated in the gardens of the East for the odour it exhales. The mandrake is also confounded by some with the sleep-apple, a mossy excrescence on the wild rose, which, when laid under the pillow, was supposed not to allow any one to awake until it was taken away.

Henbane, or Hyoscyamus niger, is another European plant belonging to this genus. It is biennial, and grows amidst the ruins of buildings in the neighbourhood of habitations. Its stem is studded with a cotton-like substance, and it constantly

ciple is a potent narcotic alkaloid resembling in its quality and the effects it produces the alkaloids, hyoscyamia atropia, yielded by the henbane and belladonna. It is a deadly poison, and among the most striking of its 160 properties may be named the effect it produces on the pupil 161 of the eye-namely, that of causing it to dilate strongly. Nevertheless, the stramonium, or thornapple as it is sometimes called, like many

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other poisonous plants, has its beneficial uses. In Cochin China, a decoction made of its leaves is considered an effectual remedy for hydrophobia, the terrible disease resulting from the bite of a mad dog; but this is very doubtful. In small quantities daturine is useful as an anodyne or pain-soother, and as an anti-spasmodic. Persons suffering from asthma have found relief in smoking the dried leaves of the plant, or inhaling an infusion made by pouring boiling water on the seeds or leaves. Great care, however, should be taken lest the patient take an overdose.

LESSONS IN BOOKKEEPING.—II.

THE PRINCIPLES OF DOUBLE ENTRY. In our first lesson, we made some general observations tending to explain the difference between Single and Double Entry, and giving some notion of the books which are necessary to be kept in a Merchant or Tradesman's counting-house. In order more fully to explain the nature of Bookkeeping by Double Entry, however, we must now give some general explanations and rules. 1. When a Customer buys goods of a Merchant on trust or credit, he becomes the Debtor and the Merchant becomes the Creditor. The quantity and the value of the goods bought by the customer, or sold by the merchant, are then entered in the Merchant's books to the Customer's debit, that is, on the Dr. side of the customer's account; and the quantity and value of the same goods are also entered in the Merchant's books to the Merchant's credit, that is, on the Cr. side of the Merchant's Account of the Goods. Let us illustrate this rule by an example:-January 15th, 1863, Robert Brown, a customer of (Page 2.) Date. Fol.

January, 1863.

mine, bought of me, a Cotton Merchant, or I sold to him, on credit, 10 bags of cotton, containing 3,000 lbs. at 8d. per lb., value £100. Here Robert Brown becomes my Debtor, and I become his Creditor. I must therefore enter his name and an account of this transaction in my books, in the following manner :

January 15th, 1863.

Robert Brown Dr. to Cotton

For 10 bags, wt. 3,000 lbs. at 8d. per lb...... £100 0 0 In a proper set of Books, kept by Double Entry, such an entry as this would appear first in the Day-Book, or some substitute for it; secondly, in the Journal or Month-Book, or Sub-Ledger; and lastly, in the Ledger itself.

In the Journal, the form of the entry would be altered for the purpose of admitting references to the Ledger, and sometimes of combining similar entries together before posting them into the Ledger. If no combination took place, the entry or the preceding transaction in the Journal would be as follows:

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Dr.

£. 8. d. £. 8. d 100 0

100 0 0

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form, because for every Debtor there is a Creditor, and of course for every Debit there is a Credit. A Debit means an entry in the Ledger where a sum is placed to the Dr. side of a customer's account showing that it is due by him, or that he owes that sum to the Merchant. The corresponding Credit is an entry in the Ledger, where the same sum is placed to the Cr. side of the Merchant's account of the goods, showing that it is due to him, or that the Customer owes him that sum. The following are the forms of both Entries in the Ledger, relating to the same Transaction:

ROBERT BROWN.

FEFF

100

(Folio 3.) Or.

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In the first of these entries, the entry reads thus: Robert | Brown Dr. To Cotton; and in the second, Cotton Account Cr. By Robert Brown. Thus you see that for every Debit there is a corresponding Credit. You see, also, that the Dr. in the Ledger is real or personal, being the Customer; but that the Cr. is unreal or fictitious, being the Goods Account, that is, Cotton. Hence arises the distinction between real or personal accounts, and unreal or fictitious accounts in the Ledger. But let it be remembered that those accounts which on account of their names are called unreal or fictitious, are quite as real and personal as any other, because they represent the Merchant himself; and if the Merchant's name were John Cassell, the actual meaning of the second of the preceding entries in the Ledger would be: John Cassell Cr. By Robert Brown.

2. When a Customer who bought goods on credit, pays the value in money 1lls the nature of the transaction above described consid

th

reversed; for the Merchant is now btor, and the Customer to become ot strictly the case, according to the ords, you know; but these words take the following broad principles at, a principle not only of simple

justice, but of stern necessity. It is this: That a Merchant or a Customer is a Debtor for whatever he receives, and a Creditor for whatever he gives away. The justice of this principle must be obvious to every one; in fact, it may be considered as the fundamental axiom of Bookkeeping; but the stern necessity of it may not be so obvious; this, however, we shall endeavour to show. We have said that for every debit there is a corresponding credit; and we may add, that for every credit there is a corresponding debit. Now, if in the Ledger a Customer is debited for goods that he buys on credit, it stands to reason, that for money he pays on account of these goods, he should be credited; and if, in the Ledger, a Merchant is credited for goods that he sells on credit, it stands equally to reason, that for money he receives on account of these goods, he should be debited. It is plain, then, that the amount of the money or bills paid by the Customer for goods purchased on credit, must be entered in the Merchant's books to the Customer's credit, that is, on the Cr. side of the Customer's account; and that the same sum must be entered in these books to the Merchant's debit, that is, on the Dr. side of the Merchant's account of Money or Bills. In this manner is the transaction settled, and accounts balanced between the Merchant and his Customer. Let

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