applied externally in the forms of lotions, plasters, or ointment. In the latter case it kills more rapidly than when taken into the stomach. Hence the danger of using the various ointments and plasters which profess to be efficacious in the cure of cancer and other similar complaints An ointment containing only one part by weight of Arsenic to thirty-two of fatty matter, was applied to a cancerous wound, the surface of which did not exceed an inch and a half in diameter, for one night only. The day following, the patient, a girl of eighteen, was seized with vomiting and violent colic, and on the second day she died with all the symptoms of having been poisoned. If If we thought it necessary, we could enumerate many instances in which the most lamentable effects have accompanied the use of quack medicines. By the combined efforts of ignorance, impudence, misrepresentation and avarice, the most deleterious nostrums acquire a temporary notoriety. Their inventors very frequently become rich; whilst death, or lingering disease, is the lot of many of their credulous and misguided patrons.

Referring again to the employment of Arsenic for the most wicked and detestable of purposes, namely, the destruction of human life; we wish distinctly to state, that it is now hardly possible for any person who resorts to it with criminal intentions to escape, sooner or later, from the ignominy and punishment their guilt justly merits.

The detection of deleterious and poisonous substances in cases of sudden or suspicious illness or death, constitutes an important branch of medical jurisprudence; and there is no substance whose presence can be more satisfactorily demonstrated, and which can be more easily separated from the contents of the stomach either before or after death, than that to which we here particularly allude. By a process, the details of which would not be interesting to our general readers, but which is of the utmost importance to the chemist, as it is also to the Christian philanthropist, so small a quantity as one-twentieth of a grain of arsenic has been collected from the stomach of a person who had been poisoned. Nor must we omit to mention the antiseptic properties of arsenic, by which we mean that it preserves from decay the bodies of those whom it deprives of life. Instances are well authenticated in which the stomach and intestines of persons who had died from the effects of arsenious acid have been found, after the lapse of many months and even of years, in as perfect a state as they were at the period of dissolution. Hence we remark that the grave, instead of concealing, may be the means of preserving, evidences of guilt; and the offender, when least suspecting it, may prove the truth of that solemn declaration, "Be sure your sin will find you out.'

The effect of Arsenic upon the human body is so sudden, that unless it is speedily expelled from the stomach, there are but faint hopes of recovery. The symptoms of having swallowed this poison are the occurrence within fifteen or twenty minutes of spasmodic pains of the stomach, a sensation of heat and tightness of the head and throat, and inflammation of the eyes. To these succeed vomiting and purging, with excruciating pain of almost every part of the body, but especially of the stomach, bowels, and head. Not a moment should be lost in procuring medical assistance, and, in the mean time, the best that can be done is to excite vomiting as quickly and as easily as possible.

We are not acquainted with any antidote for Arsenic. Lime-water and magnesia are usually recommended, but these substances tend rather to pro

duce a temporary mitigation of suffering, than to neutralize the effects of the poison. Happily there have been instances in which, by skill and promptitude, life has been preserved; but when the first alarming symptoms have abated, it is a long time before the patient can be considered in a fair way towards recovery.

In an American journal (Silliman's) for May, 1836, two cases are mentioned, on the authority of Dr. Eastman of Holles, New Hampshire, U. S., in which tobacco had been employed with complete success in counteracting the usual effects of Arsenic. The first case occurred about the year 1820, and the subject of it was Sophia, the daughter of Dr. Eastman above mentioned, who ate, by mistake, some Arsenic which had been prepared for destroying rats. Painful symptoms soon led to inquiry, when the cause was immediately discovered. An elderly lady who was present, advised that the patient should be made to vomit as soon as possible, and as she had always felt a perfect loathing for tobacco, that herb was recommended as most likely to effect the desired purpose. A pipe was accordingly used, but as that did not produce nausea, Miss E. next chewed a large quantity of strong tobacco, and swallowed the juice. To the surprise of herself and her friends, this failed in exciting even a sensation of disgust; as did also a strong decoction made with hot water, of which she drank about half a pint. But not only was the tobacco ineffective, but the painful symptoms produced by the Arsenic gradually abated, and the patient began to feel well. Physicians soon afterwards arrived, when an emetic of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) was administered, which operated moderately once. No ill consequences followed, and in a few days Miss Eastman fully recovered her health. The other case, which happened a few years afterwards in the same place, was that of a sick person, a female, who took arsenic by mistake, and she employed tobacco with the same success as already described. In this instance no emetic was taken, nor indeed any other remedy.

During the last few months, public attention has been directed towards a practice which seems to have prevailed to an alarming extent; we allude to the use of arsenic in the manufacture of certain kinds of candles. The merit of the disclosure is due, we believe, to a medical gentleman, who first mentioned the fact in a lecture delivered by him, last summer, before the Medico-Botanical Society. The subject has subsequently been very ably investigated by the gentleman already referred to, in conjunction with a committee, appointed expressly for the purpose by the Westminster Medical Society. By the report of this committee it is clearly shown, that candles containing arsenic are sold in very considerable quantities; that they are called by a variety of names each manufacturer giving them a different name; that they are represented by the parties interested in their sale as being very superior to tallow, and but little inferior to wax candles, yielding light greater in quantity, and purer in quality, than other candles; that they have platted, or, as they are sometimes called, metallic wicks, and require no snuffing. It has further been shown, that the quantity of arsenic (arsenious acid,) is found to vary considerably in different candles, and in different parts of the same candle, and that from 10 to 18 grains of this poisonous substance has been obtained from a pound weight of candles. The committee have examined

*

These are "German Wax Lights," "Venetian Wax Candles," "Stearine Candies," Imperial Wax," "Moulded Wax," "I'ropical Wax Candles," &c. &c.

samples of almost every kind of candle they could procure, and in no instance has arsenic been found in "the true wax-lights, the true spermaceti, and the old-fashioned composition-candles."

The injurious effects of arsenic, when diffused through the atmosphere of an apartment in which candles containing it were burning, could never for a moment be doubted by those acquainted with its properties. To set the question before the public in the strongest possible light, the committee already mentioned have conducted, with great care, a series of comparative experiments, in which birds, rabbits, and guinea-pigs were placed in boxes, and exposed, under precisely similar circumstances, to the products arising from the combustion of an equal number of candles containing arsenic, and of others which were quite pure. Our space will not permit us to give the details of these experiments; but we must not omit to mention, that they are both interesting and important, as respects the public health. During the week that these experiments were pursued, seven birds which had been exposed to the vapour of arsenical candles died, whilst the birds in the boxes where pure candles had been burning, were as gay, and ate and drank as freely, at the end of the week as they did at its commencement.

We cannot pursue this subject further. Let us, however, express a hope, that the exposure which has taken place, may lead to the immediate abandonment of a practice fraught with consequences of so dangerous a character.

AMUSEMENTS IN SCIENCE. No. VII.

ASTRONOMY.

In many astronomical problems, the discovery of the meridian line, that is, a line passing exactly north and south, on any part of the earth's surface, is essentially necessary. When extreme accuracy is not required, the following plans are sufficiently correct.

Suppose the meridian line to be required for the purpose of constructing a sun-dial. Having firmly fixed a piece of brass or other substance, D E, fig. 1, in some place exposed to the sun, taking especial care that its surface is perfectly level and horizontal; and on the south side of this brass plate, fix a sharp-pointed piece of iron, A: take two squares, B and C, and place them as shown in the engraving; the point where Fig. 1.

they join at c will necessarily be immediately under the pointed end of the wire; take this point as a centre and inscribe several concentric circles.

Fig. 2 will explain this better. D is the point immediately under the point of the iron, and round this point several circles are drawn. An hour or two before noon mark the spot where the shadow of the iron point passes any of the circles; an hour or two after mid-day perform the same operation.

Let us suppose A and B the points on the same circle where the shadow crossed in the forenoon and the afternoon. Take the point c exactly midway between

A and B, and from it draw a line through the centre of the circle at D. This line C DE is the meridian line of the place, and if care has been taken, its error will not be more than half a degree. The meridian line being once found, the construction of the sundial can be effected without difficulty.

IF two men are born on the same day and hour, and die on the same day and hour, one shall appear to have lived one or even two days longer than the other. It is well known to all navigators, that if a ship sails round the world, going from east to west, those on board, when they return, will have counted a day less than the inhabitants of the country they have sailed from, and to which they have returned. The cause of this is, that the vessel following the course of the sun, has the days longer, and in the whole number of the days reckoned during the voyage, there is necessarily one rising and setting of the sun less, visible to the crew. On the other hand, if the ship proceeds round the world from west to east, as it goes to meet the sun, the days are shorter, and during the whole circumnavigation, the people on board necessarily count one revolution of the sun more.

Supposing then, that of twin brothers one embarks on board a vessel which sails round the world from east to west and the other remains at home. When the ship returns, the inhabitants will reckon the day Thursday, while those on board the vessel will reckon it only Wednesday, and the twin who has been at sea will appear to have a day less in his life than he who has remained on shore. Consequently if they should die the same day, one of them would count a day less than the other, although they were both born on the same day.

But suppose that while one was sailing from east to west, the other went round the globe from west to east; on their return their account of the time would

differ by two days,-one would appear two days older

than the other.

THE Polar Star is nearly due north, and when neither sun nor moon are visible, and no mariner's compass at hand, it has directed the course of seamen across the trackless ocean, or been a guide to the wanderer on the land. Round this star the whole of the heavens appear to revolve. As it is not peculiarly bright star, its beauty is not likely to attract notice, but it can be easily found by means of the splendid constellation of the Great Bear or Charles' Wain. This constellation is so extremely beautiful that it cannot fail to have been noticed by the most casual observer. The following figure will show the method of finding the Pole Star by means of the Great Bear. A B C represents this constellation. The two stars B and Fig. 3. A are called the Pointers, and if a line is drawn through these in the direction of a smaller constellation, E, resembling the Great Bear in the arrangement of its stars, and known by the name of the Little Bear, the line will pass immediately under the Pole Star D. It is, as we have said, not very brilliant, but there are no stars of greater magnitude than itself within a considerable space of the heavens, for the remaining stars of the constellation of which it forms a portion, are much smaller, and only visible when the sky is particularly

clear.

LONDON:

JOHN WILLIAM PARKER WEST STRAND.

B

CRUSADE UNDER SIMON DE MONTFORT AGAINST THE

ALBIGENSES-CAPTURE OF MINERVE AND BAR

BARITIES COMMITTED BY THE PAPAL PARTY.

THE Castle of Minerve, situated at a short distance to the south-west of the town of St. Pons, in the South of France, was one of the strongest of the feudal fortresses which, in ancient times, so thickly covered that part of the country, and which have still left their ruins to impart a picturesque charm to its scenery at the present day. It was built upon a steep rock, surrounded by deep precipices, and from the advantages of its position was generally esteemed impregnable. It formerly gave the title of count and viscount to its possessors, and the adjacent district was called Minervois, after its name. graving gives a view of the castle in its present state; the adjoining little village still preserves the name of Minerve.

Our en

In the days of its strength the castle of Minerve was a place of importance, and occupied a conspicuous station in the wars which at different times desolated the South of France. The most prominent feature, however, in its history is its capture by Simon de Montfort, during the crusade against the Albigenses, in the early part of the thirteenth century,-an event of considerable moment in the history of the crusade VOL. XII.

itself. In a former paper* we brought down the history of the persecution of the Albigenses to the period when the principal object of the first crusade against them had been accomplished by the capture of Carcassonne, in the month of August, 1209. All open resistance on their part was then at an end; but as the Pope's legate, Arnold Amabrie, Abbot of Citeaux, who had been foremost in preaching the crusade, and directing its operations, deemed the work of persecution to be yet incomplete, he conceived the diabolical design of rooting out the "pestilent heresy," by extirpating the enlightened people who had fostered it, and into whose homes he had already brought such dire calamities.

The legate's first measure was to call a council of the crusading chiefs, to provide for the disposition of the conquests which had been made by their united arms, in favour of some prince, who would undertake to complete the extermination of the Albigenses. The viscounties of Beziers and Carcassonne, whose lawful lord, Raymond-Roger, still languished in the prison to which the perfidy of Arnold had consigned him, were offered to Eudes the Third, the reigning Duke of Burgundy. This prince was one of the great lords who had engaged in this sacred war at

See Saturday Magazine, Vol. XI., p. 97
365

the instigation of the monks of Citeaux; or, as a French historian of Burgundy expresses it, he had "taken the cross and joined the other lords, who, for the love of truth, and zeal for the Catholic religion, took arms to beat and destroy the Albigenses,heretics so much the more dangerous, as they affected to follow an apostolic, penitent, and altogether disinterested life." But although the blind bigotry of Duke Eudes had led him, "for the love of truth," to make war upon the truth, he was not wanting in that sort of magnanimity and regard for justice with which knights and nobles were, or were supposed to be, inspired, in the age of chivalry. He refused the legate's offer of the territory of Raymond-Roger, saying, "That he had plenty of lordships and domains without taking that to disinherit the said viscount, and that it appeared to him that they had done him evil enough without despoiling him of his heritage." The legate, however, was not long in finding a more pliant ally. He obtained from the council for himself, in conjunction with two bishops and four knights, full authority to settle the fate of the conquered lands; and then, in the name of this commission, offered them to Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester*, whose character is thus depicted by Sismondi.

This lord of a castle ten leagues from Paris, was the head of a house that had been illustrious for two hundred years, and which is traced by some to a natural son of King Robert. He had possessed the countship of Evreux, which, a few years before, he had sold to Philip Augustus; and his mother, who was an English woman, had left him, as an heritage, the Earldom of Leicester. He had distinguished himself in the fourth crusade, from which he was recently returned. Skilful as a soldier, austere in his carriage, fanatical in his religion, cruel and perfidious, he united every quality which could please a monk. He was too ambitious to refuse the offer which was made him, of elevating himself to the rank of the grand feudatories; but he still thought himself obliged to feign a refusal, very sure that they would overcome this pretended reluctance.

offer, the active operations of the campaign of 1209 were, for a time, at an end.

Simon de Montfort now turned his attention towards securing himself in possession of the new states which he had acquired; and to effect that object he had recourse to a deed which has left upon his character one of the deepest of the stains disgracing it. He had observed, that although RaymondRoger, the lawful sovereign of those states, was still allowed to be detained in prison, the hostility of many of the crusading chiefs against him was mitigated, and that, in fact, pity had succeeded in their minds to fury. The neighbours of "that prince loved him; his people regretted him; and it was not impossible that his uncle and sovereign lord, the King of Arragon, might be disposed to interfere in his behalf. Accordingly De Montfort "gave the necessary orders that Raymond-Roger should die of a dysentery on the 10th of November, in a lower room of the viscountal palace at Carcassonne, where he was carefully guarded." Anxious however not to appear guilty of so heinous a crime, he displayed the body of the youthful prince to his subjects, and caused him to be buried with honour. But his efforts to conceal his villany were fruitless; the public voice accused him of having poisoned his captive.

The chief operations of the campaign of 1209 having been brought to an end, the crusaders deemed their task accomplished, and certainly they had ample reason to be satisfied with the extent of the enormities which they had committed. They had destroyed two large cities, they had slaughtered with the sword thousands of the sectaries, and compelled others to fly from their burning houses, and sink under the pressure of want in the forests and mountains. Of the princes who had excited their wrath, by wishing to maintain in their own dominions some liberty of conscience, one had perished in prison, two others had submitted, and "to make their peace, refused not their tribute to the fires of the inquisition,' so that a daily sacrifice of human victims was offered up to the bigotry of these persecuting fanatics.

Sismondi observes, that those who had committed so many crimes were not, for the most part, bad Northern France where crimes have always been rare; They came from that part of Burgundy and but the heretics were in their eyes outcasts from the

men.

human race.

Still however there remained a large force under the command of De Montfort, and after taking some castles he directed his arms against the Count of Foix, who, as well as the captive Viscount of Carcassonne, bore the name of Raymond-Roger. This count possessed the greatest part of Albigeois, which was regarded as peculiarly the seat of the new doctrines; and was even himself suspected of having secretly embraced them. Unable to contend with De Montfort, he offered to treat, after having sustained several reverses, and his antagonist deeming it politic to accept the

*This name sounds familiar to English ears. The earl mentioned in the text was the father of that Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who usurped, as it were, the authority of the crown in the reign of Henry the Third, and terminated his ambitious career on the 4th of August, 1265, in the memorable battle of Evesham, which restored the sovereign power to its legitimate possessor. + See Saturday Magazine, Vol. XI., p. 50.

Ibid. Vol. XI. p. 97.

never to submit that which appertained to the faith to the judgment of reason, they congratulated themselves on the horror they felt for the sectaries. The more zealous they were for the glory of God, the more ardently they laboured for the destruction of heretics, the better Christians they thought themselves.

he 66

The

Pope Innocent the Third, was the original in stigator of the persecution of the Albigenses; and by his legates and emissaries, continually sharpened the sword of the murderers." two Spaniards whom he sent into the province in 1204, and who helped to found the Inquisition, "first taught the art of seeking out in the villages those whom the priests were afterwards to fasten to their stakes." The spirit of fanaticism had been excited to frenzy by the monks over Europe. Germans came from the extremity of Austria to fight under the banners of the crusade; and the English monk, Matthew Paris, testifies to the zeal of our benighted countrymen in the same cause, and to their triumphant joy at " the miracle which had avenged the Lord," as he calls the massacre of Beziers. The guilt, therefore, of the atrocities committed against the Albigenses, will not rest so heavily upon

the actual perpetrators as upon the subtle instigators | of them; and as Sismondi remarks, it would be to destroy the only responsibility which rests upon the powerful, the only resort for the oppressed upon this earth, not to hold up to public execration the fanatical monks who directed this movement, and the ambitious who profited by it.

The vengeance of public opinion ought not to rest only upon those who accompanied the Crusaders in their expeditions, who dragged the reformers to the flames, and who mingled their songs of triumph with the groans of their miserable victims; these were, at least, blinded by the same mad passion with which they had inspired the combatants. There was something more personal, more deliberate, more coldly ferocious, in those clouds of monks who, issuing from all the convents of the order of Citeaux, spread themselves through the states of Europe, occupied all the pulpits, appealed to all the passions to convert them into one, and showed how every vice might be expiated by crime, how remorse might be expelled by the flames of their piles, how the soul, polluted with every shameful passion, might become pure and spotless by bathing in the

blood of heretics.

Towards the close of 1209, the crusaders had experienced severe reverses, nearly all the castles which they had conquered having been surprised and recaptured; so that at the end of that year, the dominion of Simon de Montfort, in Languedoc, was reduced to eight cities or castles, it having previously comprised more than two hundred. During the ensuing Winter he remained on the defensive; but with the Spring came fresh clouds of fanatics, who enabled him again

to take the field in force.

De Montfort began his attacks at once upon the castles, which existed in great numbers. Many of them were, however, abandoned on the approach of the crusaders, their possessors not deeming them capable of sustaining a siege. De Montfort generally caused all their inhabitants whom he could lay hands upon, to be hanged upon gibbets. Some castles, calculating too favourably upon their strength, endeavoured to resist him; that of Brom was taken by assault the third day of the siege, and Simon de Montfort chose out more than a hundred of its wretched inhabitants, and having torn out their eyes, and cut off their noses, sent them, in that state, under the guidance of a one-eyed man, to the castle of Cabaret, to announce to the garrison of that fortress the fate which awaited them. The castle of Alairac was not taken till the eleventh day; a great part of its inhabitants were able to escape from the ferocity of the crusaders, but De Montfort massacred the remainder. Further on he found castles abandoned and absolutely empty; and, not being able to reach the men, he sent out his soldiers to destroy the surrounding vines and olive-trees.

De Montfort then conducted his army to a more important and arduous task-the siege of the castle of Minerve, situated at a small distance from Narbonne, on a steep rock surrounded by precipices, and regarded as the strongest place in the country. The castle belonged to William à Guiraud of Minerve, a vassal of the Viscounts of Carcassonne, and one of the bravest knights of the province. The army of the crusaders appeared before Minerve at the beginning of June; the Legate Arnold, and the canon Theodise, joined it soon after. The inhabitants, among whom were many who had embraced the tenets of the Albigenses, defended themselves with great valour for seven weeks; but when, on account of the heat of Summer, the water began to fail in their cisterns, they demanded a capitulation, Guiraud came himself to the camp of the crusaders one day when the legate was absent, and agreed with Simon de Montfort on conditions for the surrender of the

place. As they were proceeding to execute them, the Abbot Arnold returned to the camp, and De Montfort declared that nothing which they had agreed upon could be considered as binding, till the legate had given his assent.

At these words, (says Peter de Vaux-Cernay,) the abbot was greatly afflicted. In fact, he desired that all the enemies of Christ should be put to death, but he could not take upon himself to condemn them, on account of his quality of monk and priest.

With the view, however, of creating some dispute concerning the negotiation, and thereby causing all the inhabitants to be put to the sword, he required the two negotiators, De Montfort and Guiraud, to write down without communication the conditions to which they had agreed. As Arnold had hoped would be the case, he found some difference in the statements, of which De Montfort availed himself to declare, in the name of the legate, that the negotiation was broken off. But the knight of Minerve replied, that, though he thought himself sure of his memory, yet he would accept the capitulation as Simon de Montfort had drawn it up. De Montfort, however, referred the matter to the Legate Arnold, who settled the capitulation upon the following terms:-That the Lord Guiraud and all the Catholics in the castle, and even those who had favoured the heretics, should have their lives saved that the castle should remain in the hands of De Montfort,—and that the "perfect heretics," of whom there was a considerable number, should have their lives saved if they would become converted. When the capitulation was read in the council of war,

Robert of Mauvoisin, (says the monk of Vaux-Cernay,) a nobleman entirely devoted to the Catholic faith, cried, that the pilgrims would never consent to that; for it was not to show mercy to the heretics but to put them to death, that they had taken the cross; but the Abbot Arnold replied— Fear not, for I believe there will be very few converted.

The anticipations of the legate proved well founded. The crusaders took possession of the castle of Minerve on the 22nd of July, 1210; they entered singing Te Deum, and preceded by the cross and the standards of Montfort. The "heretics," as they had been styled, were in the mean time assembled, the men in one house, the women in another, and there, on their knees, and resigned to their fate, they prepared themselves by prayer, for the torments that awaited them. The Abbot of Vaux-Cernay came in pursuance of the capitulation, and began to preach to them the Catholic faith; but his auditors interrupted him by a unanimous cry,—

We will have none of your faith, (said they,) we have renounced the church of Rome: your labour is in vain. for neither death nor life will make us renounce the opinions that we have embraced.

The abbot then passed to the assembly of the women, whom he found equally resolute, and more enthusiastic in their declarations. The Count de Montfort, in his turn, visited both, having already piled up an enormous mass of dry wood: "Be converted to the Catholic faith," said he to the assembled Albigenses, "or ascend this pile." None, however, were shaken. Fire was then applied to the pile, and the whole square being soon covered with a tremendous conflagration, the victims were conducted to it. Violence, however, we are told, was not necessary to compel them to enter the flames; they voluntarily precipitated themselves therein to the number of one hundred and forty, after having commended their souls to God.

These martyrs (says the historian Milner,) died in triumph, praising God that he had counted them worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ. They opposed the legate to