The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-09-07 00:00:00

POISON TREE OFJAVA

Called in the Malayan language 80. ati Ow. is a
tree which has often been described by naturalists ;
but its existence has been very generally doubted,
and the descriptions given of it, containing much of
the marvellous, have been often treated as idle fic-
tions. N. P. Foersch, however, in an account of it
written in Dutch, asserts that it does exist : and tells
us, that he one doubted it as mach as any person ;
but, determined not to trust g:ineral opinions, he
made the most particular inquiries possible ; the re-
sult of which WAS, that he found that it is situated
in the island of Java, about 2'7 leagues from Ha-
tay..t, 14 front Sour., Cha:ta, vie Emperor's seat,
and about 19 from Tinkjoe, the residence of the
Sultan of Java. It is surrounded on all sides by
hills and mountains, and the adjacent country for
twelve miles round the tree is totally barren. Our
author says he has gone all round the spot at about
eighteen miles front the centre, and on all sides he
found the country equally dreary, which he ascribes
to its nu%ious effluvia. The poison procured from
it is a gum issuing from bet%seen the hark and the
tree ; and it is brought by maleftflors who have
been condemned to death, but who are allowed ity
this alternative to have a chance for their life. An old
ecclesiastic, our author informs us, dwelt on the
outside of the surrounsling hills, whose business it
was to prepare the criminals for their fate, if death
should be the consequence of their expedition. And
indeed, so fatal is its effluvia, that lie acknowledged
that scarcely two out of .t.io returned from above 700
whom he had dismissed.

Mr. Foersch farther tells us, that he had seen
several of the criminals who had returned, and who
told him, that the tree stands on the borders of a
rivulet, is of a middling size, and th•st five or six
young ones of the seine kind stand close to it. They
could not, however, see any other plant or shrub
near it; and the ground was of brownish sand, full
of stones and dead bodies. and difficult to pass. The
Malayans think this traa was rendered uninhabit-
able by the judgment of God at Nlahosnet's desire,
on account of the sins of the inhabitants. Nu animal
whatever is ever seen there; and such as get there
by any means never return, but have been brought
out dead by such of the crinsio.ds as have themselves
escaped death.
Our author relates a circumstance which happen-
ed in the year 1773, to about 400 families (1600
souls), who refused to pay some duty to the Em-
peror, and who were in consequence declared rebels,
and banished: they petitioned for leave to settle in
the uncultivated pasts round Upas : the consequence
of which was, that in less than two months their
number was reduced to about :1')0 souls. who begged
to be reconciled to the Emperor, and were again re-
ceived under his proteaion. Many of these survi-
vors Mr. Focrsch saw, and they had just the appear-
ance of persons tainted with an infeetiOus disorder.
With the juice of this tree, arrows, lancets, and
other offensive weapons, are poisoned. With lan-
cets thus poisoned, Mr. Fo.-rsch observes, that he
saw thirteen of the Emperor's concubines esnnted
for infidelity to h s bed, in February, 177fi. -They
were lanced in t!.e middle of their breasts ; in five
m;nittes after which, they were seized with 4 tremor
and sarbsultas tentkerne, and in Elf tecn minutes they'.
were dead. Their bodies were full of livid spots,
like those of peen-Aar, their faces swelled, colour
blue. and eyes yellow, &c. Soon after he saw sevek
Malayans executed in the same way. and saw the
same effeas follow; on which he 'resolved to try its
effe*.fs on other animals, and found the operation
similar on three puppies, a cat, and a fowl, none
of which survived more than thirteen minutes. He
also tried its effeas internally on a dog seven months
old ; the animal became delirious, was wised with
convulsions, and died in half an hour. From all
which our author concludes. that this is the most
violent of all vegetable poisons, and that it contri-
butes greatly to the unhealthiness of the island in
which it grows. By means of it many cruel and
treacherous murders are perpetrated. lle ad is,
that there exists a sort of calm -upat on the coast of
Nacassar. the poison of which, though not near so
violent or malignant, operates nearly in the same
manner.

To this accnunt our readers will Rice such a degree
of credit as they think is due ; it is our business,
however, to add, that it has been controverted in
all its parts in a memoir of Lambert Nolst. M. 1).
Fellow of the Saurian Experimental Society at Rot-
terdam.

On Tuesday last the 'town of Lancaster v-as ho-
noured with a visit from the !tight I lonourable Karl
Sr. VINCENT, and Admiral Sir THOMAS Taou-
SSIDGZ, Bart. on which occasion the bells were
rung, sad every attention paid to those distinguished
characters. Ater having walked through the town,
viewed the Castle, Quay, Mr. BROCOANiCs ship.
yard, &c. they returned to the King's Arms, and
the next morning set off en the it way to the North.
On Saturday last died, at Norwich, aged 77,
Mr. Wm. JOHNSON. He was near 50 years leather-
sealer, and for 30 years one of the Norwich waits,
both appointments of the Corporation. In the
Mayoralty of the late Mr. Alderman WESTON, by
an order of the Corpora:ion, this body Is.'came de-
fun& They wire established in the reign of Queen
Etiz•is ex a. who presented the musicians (five in
number) fri:h their instruments, and each a house
in King-street. to reside in. They were accustomed
at stated times to meet, to praaise, and amuse them-
selves, at the house now known in King-street by the
name of the Music-home. At a period, some time
distant, the Corporation wishing, perhaps, to get
rid of the trouble of these houses, or to raise a sum
of money, sold the musicians' estate, and entered
into an agreement to pay them 61. per annum in
lieu of it. When this pleasing band was dissolved,
some of its members, naturally desirous of learning
the nature of their agreement with the Corporation,
enquired for the :a:in:meat which had been executed
between them i—when, 0 ! dire misfortune, it was
found that one of their members ( who has been dead
some years). having occasion for a sheet of parch-
ment to repair an organ, and not haring the means
to purch4e one, and considering this, perhaps, little
better than waste paper, absolutely. applied this iden-
tical sheet to repair the harin,,,,r of the organ, by
which means much diesel and disappointment were
produced amineq themselves, as this circumstance
was certainly a Ler to their expeetations—bta it is
now hoped the subject, like their music, will have a
I long rem.

MISCELLANIES.

FROM TIIE MONITEUR.

Account or ?A Canova, of his reputation, his works, and

Isis statue it the Pugilist.

About the year 1763, there appeared at Rome a
gronpe in marble, representing{ The•eug congmeril
the Minotaur, which was said to he the first produc-
tion of M. Canova, a young artist, who, without
a master, had been self taught, but they were mis-
taken ; M. Canova had before finished some pieces
which were little known. He had not had what
is called a masher, but had studied nature, in which
be timid the simplest and tr nest models. This
groupc excited I he astonishment nut may strangers,
but Rome itself, who was rather spoiled by the bad
taste of the last scimal ; and M. C:IIIUVA, from that
time, was proclaimed as the statuary who was des-
tined to revive the taste and the best principles of
sculpture.
He considered candidly that in exansinhig the
state of modern sculpture, he might then hold an
eminent place, which place awaited him : lint he
preferred rather to be considered as a pupil to some
of the great masters of antiquity, to make himself
acquainted with their style, their taste, and their
principles; and, by giving up all modern systems,
have no eyes but for the antique. Having acquired,
with his knowledge, a facility of execution, which
continually renewed his temptation to persevere, he
consequently aspired to a degree of reputation which
would place him far above any standard he coma
expel to attain, had he followed the path of Michael
Angelo, and Drenin.
His reputation will be more difficult to establish
in this country than in others,, because he has here
a crowd of competitors, in the number of which,
there are, without doubt, some men of great talents,
though they hare not so frequently produced such la-
borious works. They are the more difficult to please,
because they do not judge of the labours of others,
by what they have themselves produced, but by
what they conceive themselves able to perform, and
the opponunity of anlual comparison with the chefs
ertettays of antiquity renders them still more severe.
They ought, perhaps, to guard themselves from an
excessive harshness, which always damps the spirit of
ingenuity. It were better to say, that there is a su-
periority of merit in the beautiful antique statues,
which afford many degrees of honourable employ.
ment, that it is always glorious to struggle ageinst
such adversaries, and that in such a contest he is al-
most the conqueror who is not inferior.
Se far as we are able to judge of the works of M.
Canova, there is no doubt but that many of those
able men, both in France and Italy, who have ob-
tained the highest reputation, would sink into no.
thing if they started up at this period, when a taste
for the antique, and an opinion of its superiority have
got such an universal ascendancy. If we only ad-
vert to the artists of the last century, we know the,
reputation that was enjoye I by SI. Bouchardon,
the only sculptor of that age (except those now
living) whose works have survived the authors. The
figureon which M. Bou:hardon has bestowed the
most care and attention is his Love t a work that is
considered as his master-piece. And we venture to
demand, is there any one who dare at present propose
to compare it with the antique? Whatever might have
been the talents of M. Bouchardon, he evidently
evinces, that he was not brought up in the prie:iples
of the Greek sculpture. Hellas neither -the stile,
the charaCter of the heads, the manner of the drapery,
the boldness of sledlen, there:l:led invention, t teem--
re:Mess, the genuine grate:, or the simplicav, and
yet he always studied from the antique. but the
habits of his early education prevented him from
adopting its freedom of manner, or its taste.
M. Canova has perhaps had the advantage of at-
taining the study of the antique, betcrr lie
adopted any other method, o: borrowed from any
other school. ‘Whatever may be the degree of me-
rit adjudged to him by posterity, they must always
admit that he has trodden firmly and bildiy in the
steps of the ancients, and that he had foliowed
without restraint, the course which hix principal
works exhibit to us. They must also do him the
justice to acknowledge, that he is neither a mimic,
a plagiarist, or has he a compilation in his works;
they belong to himself alone, his statues are not
made of connefted pieces, he composed, executed,
and finished them according to his own thoughts-,
and in his own manner. His figure of a Pugilist is
a proof of this. It is of a piece from head to foot,
and the charaCter is complete. All his works appear
to carry the same manner. His figure of Cupid in
the groupe of Cupid and Psyche; although in the
style.of the antique, belongs entirely to himself, and
if at first it impresses an i&a of an imitation of the
ancients, it soon becomes difficult to decide, from
what work he has taken his imitation. the above
oblervetions are lust, M. Canova will always have
the uncommon merit of being an original in his
way. There is niobody has lea mystery in his man-
ner of proceeding. 'His friends have witnessed with
what extraordinary readiness he is capable of pro-
clueing even a Colossal model, and of defacing and
recomposing in a few days. This temarkebre fa-
cility of execution and composition does not agree
with the coldness of a copyist, or the drudgery of a
plagiarist.
We have not the ;east design in this of d-tcidedly
pronouncing judgment an his talents or his produc-
tions, we merely entendc.to assist those who 11411 e
less knowledge or less opportunity of app;eciating
his reputation. He designed at first a great number
of works, and the following list is the more asto-
nishing, as they were all executed by himself in the
space of twenty years :
Before he went to Rome he finished a groupe of
Apollo and Daphne; an Orpheus large as life;
an Esculapius ; a group of Deslale and (care; and
a statue of the Marquis Poleni, at Padua.
At Rome, his first praduCtion was a groupe in
Mal ble of Theseus and the Minotaur, of which we
have already spoken : be afterwards executed the
Mausoleum of Pope tianganelli, twelve feet high,
in which the accompanying figures of the two vir-
tues werb ten feet high ; a statue of Cupid done in
marble, after the young Polish Prince lathoriniski ;
the same with a fancy head for Colonel Campbell ;
e third for Holland; five bas reliefs, the subj.-.ls
taken from the Iliad and Odyssey; a reclining Ve-
nus and Adonis, a groupe ; Cupid and Psyche;
Psyche alone; the Mausoleum of Pipe Rezzonico,
the figure of which is seventeen feet high, accompa.
nied by two figures twelve feet high, two Mans, and

a ba: relief of Justieeholding the balanet; a irr. Oar
in marble of Venus and Adonis standing, fOr
another standing groupe of Cupid. :and Psyche;
standing groupe the same ; a reclining groupe /:,
same; a penitential Magdalen, in marble ; an Apail
the size of a youth of twelve years nid ; an en,/„.;,
of grief, in bas relief, the marble of xhich was e:
cuted by another artist; the statue of Perseus hi.i
ing the head of a Medusa, which is in the Musel•
of-tabe. Vatican ; the Puiilist ; Crurgas also in tI
•
Mustaim Hercules kiliing his own children ;
cities and Leas, a grope; a statue of the king of
Naples; a M.tsoleum of the Archtlitchess Christiana_
consisting of eight figures in marish: of a great sia.•
a lion, a child, and a portrait in medallion, t
Vienna ; a statue of the pugilist Dasaimenes ;
Cnlossal statue of Bonaparte; a portrait 4
reigning Pope ; a model of a grand design adapt,
to the Pi incess Borghese ; a. Model lately
of a Venus getting out of a bath ; the statues.;
lemede, from a model begun a Lang time ago ;
a 'great number of bas reliefi and .aesigns. .• •
which works have been finished, or are now en:—
ing in marble, and M. Canova is oaly forty yeast.
The great number of produaions now extant
here colleded, do not surprise those who are
quainted with the fertile genius of the Greek art: •
and even of uur great moderns; but the pies
scarcity, during the last fifty years, in the as
sculpture, has contributed largely to relax the ,
of statuaries. For want of o; portuuity to se:
early in life, they have remained in a manner els:,-
Atts and sciences. without doubt, art greatly
tended, and there are always incitements to le.
hut that is no reason that we should remain pe,
all our lives. The artist, who is animated by ; -•.
s on for glory, will always study the figures he
cites, but that does not mean that he ought on,::
make figures to learn by. The rtatue of the PIT:, ,
which M. Canova has sent here in plaister, is no, .
this kind : it is not a figure on which the att:st
exhausted all his kiar.vledge; it r.r.ly 'hews us the i a.
tent of the knowledge he has attained.