St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-27
NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN.
Curious List of Ancient Novelties
Inventions Not New.

Curious List OF Ancient Novelties
Inventions Not New.
Prof. Lombroso writing in The Con-
temporary Review on sAtavism and
Evolution" says: ct is curious TO
examine the inventions which we deem
novelties. but which are really very old.
The ancients knew of the lightning
| conductor, or at all events the method
of attracting the lightning. The Celtic
soldiers in a storm used to lie down on
the ground, first lighting a torch and
planting their naked swords in the
ground by their side with their points
| upward. The lightning often struck
the point of the sword and passed away
into the water without injuring the
warrior.
'The Romans also seem to have
known the lightning rod, though they
let their knowledge slip again into
oblivion. On the top of the highest
tower of the castle of Dunno, on the
Adriatic, there was set, from time i'm
! memorial, long rod of iron. In the
stormy weather of summer it served
to predict the approach of the tempest.
A soldier was always stationed by it
when the sea showed any threatening
of g. storm. From time to time he put
the point of his long javelin close to
the rod. Whenever, a spark passed be-
tween the two pieces of iron he rang
a bell to warn the fishermen. Gerbert
/ (Hugh Capet), in the tenth century. in
vented a plan for diverting lightning
from the fields by planting in 1t long
sticks tipped with very sharp lance
| heads.
Gin 1862 France was already in Dos
| session of omnibuses. The Romans
| sank artesian wells even in the Sahara.
! The plains of the Lebanon and of
Palmyra were artifcially irrigated;
| traces of the wells and canals are still
to be found. In 1856 Papin published in
The Journal des Savants an account of
the experiment made by one of his
| friends named Wilde, who caused
flowers to grow instantaneously. The
secret lay in the preparation of the
ground. but it was not revealed.
Massage is very ancient practice,
and was known to the. Romans. Par
acelsus, in his Opera Medica,' speaks
of homeopathy and says that like is
| cured by like, and not contrary by con-
trary Nature herself, he says, shows
this, and like things SEEK and desire
each other Polybius also speaks of
healing by similarity, and Avicenna of
the use of infinitesimal doses of poison,
of arsenic, for example, Sin omnibus
quae sunt necessaria de incarnatione
ct resolutions sanguinis ct prohibitions
nocumenti.' Mireppus also used ar
senic in infinitesimal doses as a remedy
for intermittent fever. In China Can
nabis Indica was used as a. sedative
220 years before our era. The Arabs
used aloes and camphor as we do. The
speculum, the probe, the forceps, were
known in the year 500; indeed. speci-
mems of them have been found in the
ruins Of Pompeii, and are preserved in
the national museum at Naples. Gal,
ande, in 1865, gives a, theory of psychic
centerS, pointing out the anterior
portion of the brain as the seat of i'm
agination, the center of reason and the
back Of memory. Aristotle noticed
that sea water could be made drinkable
by boiling it and collecting the steam.
1.-THE Greeks had pilema, a wooden
or linen cuirass, so closely woven as
to be impenetrable by the sharpest of
darts. We have not found out the
secret of 1t. The Romans had better
mills than ours for pounding olives.
The Chinese had invented iron houses
as early as 1900. Glass houses were
found among the Picts in Scotland and
the Celts in Gaul, and many centuries
earlier in Siam. The systems of irri-
cation which made Lombardy and
England so fertile were in existence
in the time of Virgil. Grass cloth was
used many centuries ago by the Chi
nese. All this is explained by the fact
that man naturally detests what is
new, and tries his best to escape it,
yielding only to absolute necessity and
overpowering proof, or to an acquired
usage"