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Text of the page (random words):
badly needed new words often of a scientific nature into english language although its not quite a foreign language he also took an interest in the peculiarities of the norfolk dialect and noted these words to be in common use in norfolk such as bunny mawther kedge seele straft matchly dere nicked gadwhacking stingy sap cothish thokish and paxwax strong traces of the dutch tongue can be heard in norfolk dialect to the present day perhaps the most accessible of browne s works is his shortest work a letter to a friend which was w ritten as a bereavement consolation following the premature death of the english poet richard lovelace 1617 57 above a letter to a friend features numerous medical case histories and opens with the demographic calculation that in the whole world there dieth one thousand an hour browne was aware that geographic locations can affect people psychologically and he s credited as the first to identify the psychopathology of what is known today as paris syndrome paris syndrome has been described as a severe form of culture shock and a sense of extreme disappointment experienced by only a handful per million when visiting paris and is believed to be caused by factors such as language barrier cultural differences exhaustion and above all else idealization with his deep interest in unusual psychic phenomena and introduction of the words pathology and hallucination into the english language thomas browne was well qualified to identify the phenomena of paris syndrome within the following paragraph he names ten geographic locations defines the ozone rich air of east anglia as aerial nitre introduces the word migrant into english and advises against infirm heads that is impressionable minds from visiting venice or paris he was fruitlessly put in hope of advantage by change of air and imbibing the pure aerial nitre of these parts he is happily seated who lives in places whose air earth and water promote not the infirmities of his weaker parts he that is weak legg d must not be in love with rome nor an infirm head with venice or paris death hath not only particular stars in heaven but malevolent places on earth in which concern passager and migrant birds have the great advantages who are naturally constituted for distant habitations whom no seas nor places limit but in their appointed seasons will visit us from greenland and mount atlas and as some think even from the antipodes 9 browne s speculation on the migration routes of birds is a reminder of his keen interest in feathered creatures at one time of another he kept an owl a cormorant a kestrel and an eagle he s also credited with introducing the word incubation into english it was in his lifetime that one of the first recorded extinctions of a species of bird occurred the first recorded mention of the flightless bird known as the dodo was in 1598 by dutch sailors when they discovered mauritius a small island near madagascar which was a useful stopping off point for dutch sailors en route to the east indies because the dodo is a flightless it was easily captured by hungry sailors browne s contemporary the royalist politician sir hamon l estrange of hunstanton in norfolk wrote of a dodo he saw exhibited in london in 1638 about 1638 as i walked london streets i saw the picture of a strange fowl hung out upon a cloth canvas and myself with one or two more then in company went in to see it it was kept in a chamber and was somewhat bigger than the largest turkey cock and so legged and footed but stouter and thicker and of a more erect shape coloured before like the breast of a young cock fesan and on the back of a dunne or deare colour the keeper called it a dodo and in the end of a chimney in the chamber there lay a heap of large pebble stones whereof he gave it many in our sight some as big as nutmegs and the keeper told us she eats them conducing to digestion and though i remember not how far the keeper was questioned therein yet i am confident that afterwards she cast them all again the last recorded sighting of a dodo was in 1662 the bird was immortalized by lewis carroll in his alice in wonderland the character of the dodo is believed to be inspired by a specimen of a dodo exhibited in the oxford university museum which carroll frequently visited exploring world cultures can be enriched through collecting artifacts from near and far whether it s treasures gathered during travels or acquired locally in an era long before photography those with means could hire artists to capture the essence of these treasured possessions preserving memories of exotic journeys and far off lands sir robert paston of oxnead hall near alysham commissioned an unknown dutch artist to paint a selected fraction of his collection of art objects some of which were acquired when his father visited jerusalem and cairo dating from circa 1665 the paston treasure above has a multi layered narrative its simultaneously a record of the robert paston s collection a vanitas painting and a microcosm of the world in the 17th century as hinted by the prominent position of a globe browne would have seen this painting when visiting the paston s and given that in religio medici he confesses i can look a whole day with delight upon a handsome picture though it be but of an horse he would without doubt delighted in viewing it the world s continents are represented in the paston treasure by a packet of tobacco from america a boy and parrot from africa and a porcelain dish from asia sculptures and gems gold silver and enamel as well as music instruments of a bass viol sackbut violin and lute can also be seen the peaches grapes and oranges along with lobster suggest a luxurious lifestyle the paston treasure also expresses a moral warning life has sudden unexpected disturbances the servant is disrupted from his duties by a monkey which has jumped onto his shoulder the young girl is interrupted from her singing by a parrot alighting on the music she s reading in recent years the paston treasure has been restored exhibited in america and studied in depth by the art historian spike bucklow in his excellent insightful book today it can be seen in norwich castle museum its only in recent decades that topics such as alchemy and the esoteric in general have been taken seriously by academics spike bucklow is the first in over three and a half centuries to identify that the paston treasure displays a mounted shell cup above with a very clear image of atalanta in the act of running bucklow notes it is as if sir robert had put this shell in the painting to draw attention to a book that guided his alchemical journey the book in question being michael maier s alchemical work atalanta fugiens 1617 10 one unique feature of browne s prose is his usage of geographical places and historical persons as symbols for example he describes the difficulties in his compiling an encyclopaedia as oft times fain to wander in the america and untravelled parts of truth geographical place name symbols along with historical persons symbols can be found in browne s philosophical work the two in one diptych discourses of 1658 urn burial and the garden of cyrus these two 17th century images the nigredo stage of the alchemical operation left and the garden of mathematical delights right both from books once in browne s library are i believe excellent visual representations of the thematic concerns and mood music of each respective discourse click on picture to enlarge the melancholic grave and saturnine meditations upon human suffering in urn burial are answered by the mercurial garden delights of cyrus a multiplicity of opposition or polarities occur in browne s literary diptych in their respective themes imagery truth and literary style urn burial opens in the deep discovery of the subterranean world and concerns itself with the oblivion of time in complete contrast the garden of cyrus concerns itself with space and opens with shooting rays and diffused light of the creation before continuing in speculation on the geographical location of the garden of eden 11 in browne s geographical symbolism america invariably symbolizes the new the unknown and exotic in contrast the proper place name of persia is used as a symbol of magic and esoteric wisdom these two geographical symbols are juxtaposed in a startling way at the conclusion of the garden of cyrus in doing browne highlights how humankind s collective consciousness ebbs and flows between those who are waking up and conscious while others fall asleep and are unconscious the huntsmen are up in america and they are already past their first sleep in persia but perhaps the most famous example of browne s geographical symbolism occurs in religio medici where he inspirationally declares we carry within us the wonders we seek without us there is all africa and her prodigies in us 12 the psychologist carl jung when hearing this quote while visiting kenya east africa was impressed and immediately made note of it actually there s a fascinating relationship between the famous swiss psychologist jung to browne both were doctors interested in the interpretation of dreams both read esoteric authors and both were interested in the geography of the mind and mapping of the psyche s contents 13 together urn burial and the garden of cyrus are browne s great work of psychology historical personages are employed by him as symbols in order to illustrate archetypes that is the first original forms of the psyche as envisioned by plato and hermetic philosophers browne s proto psychology attempts in cyrus to delineate the archetype of the wise ruler through historical name symbolism mentioning moses solomon abraham alexandria the great and the titular cyrus as exemplars of the wise ruler women aren t overlooked in his proto psychology the archetype of the great mother is sketched through inclusion of the nurturing old testament matriarch sarah the roman goddess juno and the egyptian goddess isis with the colonization of south america by the spanish and portuguese in the seventeenth century as well as european migration to north america along with the opening of trading routes to the east indies and china an abundance of published reports upon exotic flora and fauna became available to the physician tobacco and the potato were early exports from america to europe throughout the 17th century it was the swiss alchemist physician paracelsus above who encouraged his fellow physicians to experiment with substances from the vegetable mineral and animal kingdoms in order to discover new medicines and new cures we can be confident that doctor browne of norwich was a committed follower of paracelsus 1493 1541 not only are the luther of medicine s bulky writings listed as once in his vast library but the very word used by paracelsus to describe his distinctive kind of medical alchemy known as spa gyric meaning to separate and conjoin can be seen inscribed upon browne s coffin plate one half of which survives on display at saint peter mancroft the distinguished canadian physician sir william osler 1849 1919 who was a great admirer of browne commissioned a replica of this brass coffin plate it can be seen at the norfolk and norwich sir thomas browne medical library 14 a great example of browne s following paracelsian medicine occurs in his assessment of so called peruvian bark the source of the drug known today as quinine a jesuit priest is credited as among the first to observe that the inca people use a diffusion of the bark from the cinchona tree to ease the symptoms of malaria indeed the original inca word for the cinchona tree bark quina or quina quina which roughly translates as bark of bark or holy bark in 1638 the wife of a peruvian viceroy used the bark to relieve her fever induced symptoms during the onset of malaria her remedy was called a miracle cure by 1658 an english newspaper advertised the excellent powder known by the name of jesuits powder may be obtained from several london chemists although peruvian bark was hailed as a successful medicine for malaria due to religious prejudice it was not officially recognised in england until 1677 because it was known as jesuits powder it was tainted with associated with catholicism even among the educated such as king charles the second who took an active interest in the new scientific enquiry advanced by the royal society was suspicious of jesuit s powder because of its presumed association with catholicism however when the king suffered from a malarial fever he consulted a mr robert talbor who was obliged to give the king the bitter bark decoction in great secrecy the treatment completely relieved king charles from malarial fever and he rewarded talbor handsomely with a lifetimes membership of the newly formed royal society several 17th century english physicians were interested in reports of the healing qualities of peruvian bark especially those who lived in regions prone to the spread of malaria east anglia with its marshes broads large tracts of low laying land and slow flowing stagnant stretches of water was an ideal habitat for the spread of the insect borne virus in correspondence to his youngest son nicknamed honest tom browne requested of him when you are at cales see if you can get a box of the jesuits powder at easier rate and bring it in the bark not in powder 15 browne s request to obtain jesuits powder from a continental source and not from london suggests he knew that the thriving trade in peruvian bark was vulnerable to dilution by apothecaries his insistence on bark and not powder also suggests he was familiar with peruvian bark s composition his assessment of peruvian bark in an undated letter is considered one of the most detailed in british medical history another new substance introduced to europe in this case through trade with china was the root known as ginseng because the shape of the fleshy ginseng root resembles the torso and limbs of a human all kinds of medical and healing properties have been attributed to it widely cultivated in china for centuries ginseng is used in chinese medicine as a muscle relaxant in correspondence to his eldest son edward dr browne wrote deare sonne you did well to observe ginseng all exotick rarities especially of the east the east india trade having encreased are brought in england and the profitt made therof of this plant kircherus writeth in his china illustrata 16 today ginseng is scientifically recognised for its anti carcinogenic and antioxidant properties throughout the 1650s and 1660s england found itself embroiled in conflict with the newly emerging economic power and global trade of the dutch republic british resentment towards the newly emerging european power is perceptively articulated by the art historian simon schama who noted of johan de witt the chief negotiator for the peace treaty of the second anglo dutch war british enmity on the other hand he knew to be chronic and rooted in the very ...