An address to the President ... and members, of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce : occasioned by the conduct of a committee of the Society. Together with a vindication of the author from an imputation ... that he had pirated his system of rescue from shipwreck on a lee-shore, from a previous plan of Lieut. Bell / [George William Manby].

  • George William Manby
Date:
1816
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address to the President ... and members, of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce : occasioned by the conduct of a committee of the Society. Together with a vindication of the author from an imputation ... that he had pirated his system of rescue from shipwreck on a lee-shore, from a previous plan of Lieut. Bell / [George William Manby]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    can proceed now, it could dt -first3 and therefore, what is this buoy but a mass of incumbrance, and a complicated uselessness ? Another objection, if any more be needed, to this scheme is, that the size of the cylinders would make it float a great height above the surface; and offer a fulcrum, by which, though not so rapidly as the ship, the wind would drive it to leeward much more rapidly than the best swimmer in such uneven water could follow it. Yet it is gravely proposed by the projector, and gravely entertained by the Society, that on this buoy, which afterwards, like a machine in a pantomime, changes into a sailing boat, a man (when at the expense of all his strength, he has reached it), shall hoist a mast, set a sail, and sit with a paddle lei* surely steering himself in the stern under a lofty sail, (as he is repre¬ sented in a plate) * like Gulliver in his boat on the cistern, wafted along by the fans of the ladies of Brolxlignag. As long as mankind have a propensity to ridicule, attempts will be made to try the extent of the credulity, which could resign itself to such pretensions, and it is not wonderful, that, a short time ago, a person, under the name of Fairbrother, sent to the Society a scheme for adorn¬ ing with living hair the heads of the most inveterately bald. The pro¬ cess was thus described. The hair was to be drawn by the roots from the head of a young and healthy ferqale, in preference to a male, and inserted by puncture in the scalp, requiring plantation. An unctuous composition was then to be applied; vand the patient for a length of time to undergo such a sweating, as no jockey, who had to reduce himself to a given weight, by a given day, ever yet suffered. It joined an offer to produce several persons, who had successfully submitted to the operation; and to exhibit the difference of appearance between heads planted with male and female hair. It will be thought, that no credulity could be caught where so little care had been taken to cover and conceal the ridicule. There cannot be a greater mistake. The pro¬ posal was seriously entertained, and a day, which, by a ludicrous coin¬ cidence was the 1st of April, fixed for the appearance of the operator with his process and patients before a committee of the Society. I cite these instances to shew, that there is a disorder in the system, and that the attention of the more liberal members to the temperament of the committees is absolutely necessary to restore the original healthi¬ ness of the society. I wish it prosperity, if it deserve it. I am no friend to its existence with a mischievous tendency, which must be the consequence of its abuse, while it has a reputation with the public. On the other hand, if it be conducted with impartiality, it may be of na¬ tional advantage; and then I deprecate the ridicule which, from a dread of contagion, will bring on it contempt and desertion. I here conclude my complaint, and I trust that I have made it with as * See Vol. XXXII, p. 196, of the Transactions of the Society of Arts,
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