- Paganini
In a notice of his first concert, the Times says— "The personal appearance of Paganini is remarkable. He is a tall, thin man, with features rather emaciated, pale complexion, a sharp, aquiline nose, and a keen eye, the expression of which is greatly heightened when he is animated by his performance. His hair, which is dark, is worn long behind, and combed off the forehead and temples, in a manner which gives an air of great simplicity to his countenance. He seems to be about fifty years of age. "The enthusiasm which his performance excited last night among the audience certainly surpassed anything of the kind within these walls. Every tour de force and striking passage was not only applauded, but cheered by the whole audience, and some of the variations were encored. At the end of every performance, and especially after the last, the applause, cheering, and waving of handkerchiefs and hats, altogether presented a most extraordinary scene. Foreigners, who have been present at his concerts in several other parts of Europe, remarked that the applause bestowed, and the enthusiasm excited last night, were greater than they had ever witnessed before." - Morning costume of Dandy of the early Revolutionary period - 1791
Morning costume of Dandy of the early Revolutionary period - 1791 - Remarkable Dance.—XIII. Century
Here we perceive a girl dancing upon the shoulders of the joculator, who at the same time is playing upon the bagpipes, and appears to be in the action of walking forwards. - Street Telescope Exhibitor
Street Telescope Exhibitor “It must be about eight years since I first exhibited the telescope. I have three telescopes now, and their powers vary from about 36 to 300. The instruments of the higher power are seldom used in the streets, because the velocity of the planets is so great that they almost escape the eye before it can fix it. The opening is so very small, that though I can pass my eye on a star in a minute, an ordinary observer would have the orb pass away before he could accustom his eye to the instrument. High power is all very well for separating stars, and so forth; but I’m like Dr. Kitchener, I prefer a low power for street purposes. A street-passer likes to see plenty of margin round a star. If it fills up the opening he don’t like it. - The 1840 style
The 1840 style - Street Conjurer Performing
Street Conjurer Performing - Knights
Knights and Men-at-arms cased in Mail, in the Reign of Louis le Gros, from a Miniature in a Psalter written towards the End of the Twelfth Century. - An official ball in the Strassbourg Theatre
- Women's Costume during the Directory - 1795 - 1800
Women's Costume during the Directory - 1795 - 1800 - 1806
- Lamarck
Although there has been and still may be a difference of opinion as to the value and permanency of Lamarck’s theoretical views, there has never been any lack of appreciation of his labors as a systematic zoölogist. He was undoubtedly the greatest zoölogist of his time. Lamarck is the one dominant personage who in the domain of zoölogy filled the interval between Linné and Cuvier, and in acuteness and sound judgment he at times surpassed Cuvier. His was the master mind of the period of systematic zoölogy, which began with Linné—the period which, in the history of zoölogy, preceded that of comparative anatomy and morphology. - Hairstyles for 1836
Hairstyles for 1836 - 1806
- 1808
- 1805
1805 - Charlemagne
Portrait of Charlemagne, whom the Song of Roland names the King with the Grizzly Beard.--Fac-simile of an Engraving of the End of the Sixteenth Century. Charlemagne was the first who recognised that social union, so admirable an example of which was furnished by Roman organization, and who was able, with the very elements of confusion and disorder to which he succeeded, to unite, direct, and consolidate diverging and opposite forces, to establish and regulate public administrations, to found and build towns, and to form and reconstruct almost a new world. We hear of him assigning to each his place, creating for all a common interest, making of a crowd of small and scattered peoples a great and powerful nation; in a word, rekindling the beacon of ancient civilisation. When he died, after a most active and glorious reign of forty-five years, he left an immense empire in the most perfect state of peace - The Incroyable of the Revolution Period - 1795
The Incroyable of the Revolution Period - 1795 "Incroyable" (incredible) was the sobriquet given to the fops or dandies of the later Revolutionary period. Here is the description of one of these remarkably dressed personages as given by the French writer, Honore de Balzac: The costume of his unknown presented an exact picture of the fashion which at that time called forth the caricatures of the Incroyables. Imagine a person muffled in a coat so short in front that there showed beneath five or six inches of the waistcoat and with skirts so long behind that they resembled a codfish tail, a term then commonly employed to designate them. An immense cravat formed round his neck such innumerable folds that the little head emerging from a labyrinth of muslin almost justified Captain Merle's kitchen simile. [Merle had described the Incroyable as looking "like a duck with its head protruding from a game pie."] The stranger wore tight breeches and boots a la Suwarrow; a huge white and blue cameo was stuck, as a pin, in his shirt. Two watch chains hung in parallel festoons at his waist, and his hair, hanging in corkscrew curls on each side of the face, almost hid his forehead. Finally, as a last touch of decoration, the collars of his shirt and his coat rose so high that his head presented the appearance of a bouquet in its paper wrappings. If there be added to these insignificant details, which formed a mass of disparities with no ensemble, the absurd contrast of his yellow breeches, his red waistcoat, his cinnamon brown coat, a faithful portrait will be given of the height of fashion at which dandies aimed at the beginning of the Consulate Preposterous as the costume was, it seemed to have been invented as a sort of touchstone of elegance to show that nothing can be too absurd for fashion to hallow it. - Costumes of the Franks from the Fourth to the Eighth Centuries
The period known as the Middle Ages, says the learned Benjamin Guérard, is the produce of Pagan civilisation, of Germanic barbarism, and of Christianity. It began in 476, on the fall of Agustulus, and ended in 1453, at the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II., and consequently the fall of two empires, that of the West and that of the East, marks its duration. Its first act, which was due to the Germans, was the destruction of political unity, and this was destined to be afterwards replaced by religions unity. Then we find a multitude of scattered and disorderly influences growing on the ruins of central power. The yoke of imperial dominion was broken by the barbarians; but the populace, far from acquiring liberty, fell to the lowest degrees of servitude. Instead of one despot, it found thousands of tyrants, and it was but slowly and with much trouble that it succeeded in freeing itself from feudalism. Nothing could be more strangely troubled than the West at the time of the dissolution of the Empire of the Caesars; nothing more diverse or more discordant than the interests, the institutions, and the state of society, which were delivered to the Germans - Lamarck - Aged 35
Lamarck - Aged 35 - 1805
1805 - 1803
- The more practical gown of the Empire Period
The more practical gown of the Empire Period - two walking dresses as well as an indoors and evening dress 1836
two walking dresses as well as an indoors and evening dress 1836 - Druids
ALTHOUGH these Britons did not worship images, they believed that there were many gods and their religion was very different from that which is taught us in the Bible. They had priests who were called DRUIDS, who lived mostly in the forests, and taught the people that the Oak was a sacred tree. They worshipped the mistletoe, a plant which grows on the branches of the oak and on other trees. This mistletoe was cut off every year, with a golden knife, by the chief Druid, amid great rejoicing, and was very carefully preserved. The priests wore white linen robes, and let their beards grow very long to distinguish them from the rest of the people. The savages obeyed them because they knew more than anybody else, and tried to find out medicines to cure those who were ill. They used various means to make the people give them presents. On a certain day, at the beginning of winter, they obliged all persons to put out their fires, and light them again from the fire of the sacred altar, telling them, that by so doing they would have good fortune throughout the year; but if any one did not act as they wished, they would not allow him to enter their temples, and his friends were forbidden to give him any help. - The Turkish Treaty, 1920
The Turkish Treaty, 1920 - Man in London
Man in London - The First Crusade
They came by diverse routes from France, Normandy, Flanders, England, Southern Italy, and Sicily, and the will and power of them were the Normans. They crossed the Bosphorus and captured Nicæa, which Alexius snatched away from them before they could loot it. They then went on by much the same route as Alexander the Great, through the Cilician Gates, leaving the Turks in Konia unconquered, past the battle-fields of the Issus, and so to Antioch, which they took after nearly a year’s siege. Then they defeated a great relieving army from Mosul. A large part of the Crusaders remained in Antioch, a smaller force under Godfrey of Bouillon (in Belgium) went on to Jerusalem. “After a little more than a month’s siege, the city was finally captured (July 15). The slaughter was terrible; the blood of the conquered ran down the streets, until men splashed in blood as they rode. At nightfall, ‘sobbing for excess of joy,’ the crusaders came to the Sepulchre from their treading of the wine-press, and put their blood-stained hands together in prayer. So, on that day of July, the First Crusade came to an end.” - Germany after the Peace Treaty, 1919
Germany after the Peace Treaty, 1919 - The Grecian Bend
The Grecian Bend , a feature of the late 70's - Knight in War Harness
Knight in War-harness, after a Miniature in a Psalter written and illuminated under Louis le Gros - 1804
1804 - Drawing Blood for Transfusion
When the donor’s arm has been congested by gripping it above the elbow, or better by the application of a tourniquet drawn to the requisite degree of tightness, a suitable vein, usually the median basilic, is chosen. The area of puncture is washed with ether and a very small quantity, 2 to 3 minims, of 2 per cent. novocain is introduced over the vein with a hypodermic syringe. If a larger quantity is used, the vein may become obscured, but this small amount may be dispersed by a few moments’ pressure with the finger, and is usually enough to anæsthetize the very small area of skin that is to be operated upon. A tiny cut in the skin is then made with the point of a scalpel, and the needle is pushed through into the vein. - Kimpton-Brown Tube
Whole Blood Transfusion with Kimpton’s Tube. The principle of this method depends upon the use of paraffin wax as a coating for the vessel into which the blood is drawn, so that clotting is prevented or greatly delayed. The form of the vessel has been modified by different workers, but the essentials are the same in each. One form of the apparatus, known as the Kimpton-Brown tube, is illustrated in the accompanying diagram. It consists of a graduated glass cylinder, of about 700 cc. capacity, the lower end of which is drawn out into a cannula point at an acute angle with the body of the cylinder; the point is of a size convenient for introducing into a vein and its bore large enough to allow of a free flow of blood through it. Near the upper end is a side tube to which a rubber tube can be attached, and an opening at the top is closed by a rubber bung. An ordinary rubber double-bulb bellows is the only other apparatus that is needed. - King or Chief of Franks armed with the Seramasax, from a Miniature of the Ninth Century
When the Franks took root in Gaul, their dress and institutions were adopted by the Roman society. This had the most disastrous influence in every point of view, and it is easy to prove that civilisation did not emerge from this chaos until by degrees the Teutonic spirit disappeared from the world. As long as this spirit reigned, neither private nor public liberty existed. Individual patriotism only extended as far as the border of a man's family, and the nation became broken up into clans. Gaul soon found itself parcelled off into domains which were almost independent of one another. It was thus that Germanic genius became developed. - 1807
- A Wedding ( La Madeleine )
The crowd is generally sympathetic to weddings. The hour at which they are accomplished generally coincides with that of the lunch of the milliners and other dressmakers of the district, which their lack of dowry maintains in the state of celibates without depriving them of the desire and the hope of going up in `rank`. They constitute the fund of spectators, and their special knowledge enables them to estimate with precision the probable resources of the new spouses and their entourage. - Blundell’s Impellor
A more general interest in the subject was revived in England by the work of James Blundell, lecturer on physiology and midwifery at St. Thomas’s and Guy’s Hospitals. He published in 1818 his earliest paper on experimental transfusion with a special form of syringe invented by himself. His first apparatus consisted of a funnel-shaped receptacle for the blood, connected by a two-way tap with a syringe from which the blood was injected through a tube and cannula into the recipient. His experiments were[11] performed upon dogs, and he began by drawing blood from the femoral artery and re-injecting it into the same animal through the femoral vein. He then conducted a long series of investigations into the properties of blood, the effects of its withdrawal, and the resuscitation of an exsanguinated animal. Soon he had opportunities of transfusing patients with human blood, and the results are recorded in his paper of 1824. His apparatus had by then been elaborated, and an engraving of his Impellor, as he termed it, is reproduced here. It consisted as before of a funnel-shaped receptacle for the blood, but the syringe was now incorporated in one side of the funnel, and contained a complicated system of spring valves, which caused the blood to travel along the delivery tube when the piston was pushed down. The Impellor was fixed to the back of a chair in order to give it stability. - The waterer of the Louis XV bridge
Few horses are driven there for the sole purpose of quenching their thirst, but the number of tired hocks that we hope to strengthen by staying in cold water is large enough for the trough to be sufficiently populated, and the hope of seeing some clumsy groom fall into the water keeps a certain number of fans of free shows on the parapets. - Bicyclists ( Carrefour d'Ermenonville )
While at the Potinière we admire the velocemen and velocewomen in possession of all the secrets of art, we only meet here the laggards studying under the eye of professionals. It is assured that the ordinarily gifted people are, after ten lessons, in a condition to direct themselves properly. But just as some students take a long time to do their law far beyond the statutory years, so we find certain temperaments refractory to equilibrium which persist in capsizing at every turn of the wheel beyond all expectations. - Return of the Races
From the weighing gate of Longchamps to the top of avenue du Bois, there is everywhere the same accumulation of cars, horses and bicycles. The lines follow one another without interruption, the noses of the horses touching the hood of the previous car and the drawbars threatening the rear of the footmen sitting behind the phaeton. Despite the impatience of some, the general resignation means that, in a relatively short time, this mass of spectators ends up flowing, which, first of all, seemed to be absolutely implausible. - Charles V
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V Most of the figures that stand out in history, do so through some exceptional personal quality, good or bad, that makes them more significant than their fellows. But there was born at Ghent in Belgium in 1500 a man of commonplace abilities and melancholy temperament, the son of a mentally defective mother who had been married for reasons of state, who was, through no fault of his own, to become the focus of the accumulating stresses of Europe. The historian must give him a quite unmerited and accidental prominence side by side with such marked individualities as Alexander and Charlemagne and Frederick II. This was the Emperor Charles V. For a time he had an air of being the greatest monarch in Europe since Charlemagne. Both he and his illusory greatness were the results of the matrimonial statecraft of his grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian I (born 1459, died 1519). - Ethiopan Serenaders
Ethiopan Serenaders The Street Vocalists are almost as large a body as the street musicians. It will be seen that there are 50 Ethiopian serenaders, and above 250 who live by ballad-singing alone. - Midnight past ( New boulevards )
This is a serious problem. — Is the night rate applicable when you arrive home after 12:30 am, or is it necessary that the driver was picked up after that hour to be allowed to claim the price? In the current circumstance, the coachman claims the opposite, the bourgeois claims that he owes only the ordinary race, the agents are in an extreme perplexity, and the female part of the loading of the cab is moping while waiting for the solution of the conflict. - A tumbling Ape
A tumbling Ape - Men-posters ( Place de la Concorde )
It is noon. It's lunch time, and, as La Réclame knows that a hungry stomach has no more eyes than ears, it rests. Illuminated vehicles park lined up at the bottom of the sidewalks, while their hitches stretch their tired limbs and light the comforting cigarette. — To be immobile, these vehicles nevertheless retain their motley appearance for all, terrifying for quadrupeds, and like their daily station coincides with the return of the rides, it puts desperation the squires responsible for watching over the first steps of young Amazons, whose dismayed mounts manifest in various ways their invincible repugnance. - A refuge ( Line of large boulevards )
It is certainly the most important step that has been taken towards social reform since the new era. — The refuge adds to human rights that of being crushed only when it wants to, when it is lacking of patience, or that his physiognomy is unfriendly to the peacekeeper responsible for interrupting the movement of devices to crush the members of the poor people. - Death of Sainte-Geneviève
Sainte-Geneviève, the patron saint of the Parisians, also perpetuated with her legend on the walls of the Panthéon, originally her church but now dedicated to the Grands Hommes of the nation, was born at Nanterre, near Paris, in 422, and guarded in the fields the flocks of her parents, Sévère and Gérontia. - Parisian fishermen ( Quai d'Orsay )
The case sometimes arises that one of them takes a fish, - generally small; - the physiognomy of colleagues immediately expresses all the nuances of astonishment much more than the symptoms of jealousy, - which would tend to prove that no illusion supports them during their long stations, and that, far from coveting imaginary fries, they know what to expect from the probable results of their platonic passion. - Street Performers on Stilts
Street Performers on Stilts - Suburban train ( Gare Saint-Lazare )
Everyone, after a hard day's work, is anxious to find the freshness of a more or less vast garden, but where one has the freedom to put oneself in shirt sleeves. — It is the hour when additional edibles abound in the nets of the wagons, and where the melons combine their perfumes with those of the marolles and the emanations of the cigars expensive or cheap, but also smelly, of our national factories. - Results ( The Breakdown Club)
The expected shock has occurred. A carelessly driven cab, it was seen, emerging from the rue de Presbourg, did not have time to avoid the avalanche with four wheels which rolled towards him. The rear wheel of the carried tank (it broke suddenly) struck hers so that the two vehicles were instantly stopped. The lighter cab was thrown to the side while his driver was launched on the back alley. - Monceau Park
The instruction that cars must pass through this oasis intended for the recreation of children and nannies is perfectly legitimate, and we find it natural that we seek to protect future generations from any accident. But would it not be fair to demand a certain reciprocity for the safety of teams that venture there, and to prohibit these young men, so paternally protected by municipal by-laws, from launching horses such a wide variety of projectiles? - At the bookstore ( Boulevard des Italiens )
Here, it is the meeting place for gourmets of intelligence, who prefer to the satisfaction of vulgar gluttony the feast of the spirit. No indigestion to fear if the chance of the title has misled you; the heaviest products have never had more serious effects than bringing sleep, sometimes anticipated, but always calm and often deep. The great advantage of this kind of gift is for the donor that it is not forced to taste it; the danger is to give, without having read it, a book which demolishes the political, religious and social tendencies of the important personage to whom he offers it for the sole purpose of making himself a protector as devoted as it is persevering. - An electric tramway ( Rue Tronchet )
The horses had scarcely begun to get used to the steam trams, their smoke and their whistles, which it was thought fit to use electricity. — It was doubtless with good intention, since these new vehicles run noiselessly and smoke-free. Nevertheless they cause the Parisian cavalry an invincible terror. — The animals, who are only half stupid, are always wary of what they cannot explain, and the sight of this car that nothing apparently does not set in motion, and which stirs however, inspires them with a distrust which does not seem completely unintelligent to me. - The costumes given for 1835 are a nursemaid and children
The costumes given for 1835 are a nursemaid and children - An accident ( Rue de Rivoli )
The wooden pavement is sometimes slippery, - this is often the result of natural humidity; - more frequently still, this dangerous state of the roadways results from an insufficient watering which does not remove any of the refuse on which the horses skate. - These days, there are as many animals lying as standing, and without the spirit of brotherhood that leads our fellow citizens to help each other, the circulation would become decidedly impassable. - Packing ( Avenue du Bois de Boulogne)
Suddenly, without us knowing which fly bit it, one of the horses in the procession suddenly took on a disorderly pace as the combined efforts of his coachman and of his tiller's comrade failed to moderate. He does not gallop, he flies, sowing fear in timid souls, arousing the noblest inclinations of devotion in generous natures. - A show ( Place Vendôme )
The downpour, so impatiently awaited during certain summers, sometimes multiplies in such a way that this cataclysm becomes the daily event. — Despite this regularity, the phenomenon varies so much the hours of its appearance, and occurs with such instantaneousness, that 'he succeeds each time in surprising and flooding a satisfactory number of walkers, who had thought they could profit from a fallacious clearing. - Ambulant Merchants ( Rue Montmartre )
Very sympathetic to the housewives of the district who support them against all odds, they are the masters of the road, and the heaviest vehicles are obliged to give way to them. — If an unfortunate coachman has the audacity to walk at the smallest trot , or the awkwardness of passing too close to a customer installed in the middle of the street, he is in the grip of a vocabulary which reveals the neighborhood of the halls. - An omnibus station ( Place de la Madeleine )
It is an open-air circle, without subscription, and with this advantage that women are admitted to it. It is undoubtedly for this reason that we see regulars there, who, although provided with numbers, never decide to take their place in the vehicles which succeed one another, however, without interruption.