| Description | [Diary Transcription]
198
1833
September
it was picked up in some churchyard and bought by the duke at a great price — Monsieur Jussieu of Paris has one,
and there is a 3rd at Prague — the complaint had no name till Blumenbach himself gave it that
of Osteoncosis — he has a specimen of a dried man taken from a church in Magdeburg
much finer specimen than the one at the museum — no accounting for this kind of drying — cannot
tell why it should be — especially why one should be so dried among so many which perish like the rest —
Blumenbach never could make out the great distinguishing mark of a Jew till breakfasting
one morning with Sir Benjamin West, he (West) told him it was the ridge formed by the suture of
the 2 bones, just under the nose, into which the upper teeth are set — on returning home he found this remark
verified, and pointed out to me a Jew’s skull that was a remarkable illustration of the observation — spoke
of the Cave of Bayreuth, — and of the fossil mammoth on the banks of the Lena — Adams’s
by dint of filing contrived to get a dinner out of it — the emperor tired of sending on these errands, for this
business of sending Adams to the mammoth cost 8000 dollars — an hour with Blumenbach till 5 20/.. —
dinner at 6 to 8 — at which hour Miss Ferrall left me — then at my travelling map etc. — finish day till
about one — then light rain more or less all the rest of the day — Fahrenheit 64° at 10 p.m. — They say in
the house there are 860 students here — Blumenbach shewed me his lecture room — benches for about 50
to sit comfortably — government have it in contemplation to build public lecture rooms —
[margin text:] Monsieur Langenbeck professor of Anatomy —
Monday 2
5 10/.. p.m.
10 20/..
In the bed all the day for my cold — literally in a state of solution — the bed over me as heavy
as that under and both the one and the other and my pillow were quite wet when I got up — lying in bed is no
gentle remedy in Germany — a few hours longer and I should hardly have been able to stand, so excessive
had been the perspiration — yet I felt my cold not much changed by it — all tendency to, or
all feeling of sore throat was gone, and perhaps I breathed rather easily — but this was all — no
occasion for washing — dried myself with a towel and lay on the sofa all the evening while my bed was
dried — had breakfasted in bed about 10 on boiled milk as usual — dined on boiled milk
and bread with some warm compotte de pommes [applesauce] — and had a little boiled milk afterwards — Miss Ferrall
sat in the sitting room all day to be near for fear I should want anything — dined at 6 —
left me at 9 — sat up a little looking over my map etc. — rainy day — Fahrenheit 61° at
9 1/2 p.m. — feel very weak, but my cold rather better tonight? —
Tuesday 3
7 40/..
10 1/2
breakfast at 10, and sat talking till 11 3/4 — Fine morning Fahrenheit 58° at 11 3/4 p.m. the funeral of
professor Blank passed under our windows between 8 and 9 this morning preceded by music clarionets
and horns very melancholy good music then some mourners — then the coffin on large platform on 4
low wheels, covered with black, drawn by 4 horses so envelopt in black it was scarce possible to tell what
kind of animals they were — 3 men touched the platform on each side, as if bearers — immediately
followed charity children, 1st girls, then boys, then a long line of students 2 abreast, then 7 or 8 carriages closed
the procession — there were a couple of soldiers here and there to keep order — from 11 3/4 to 3, wrote out my
199
1833
September
journal from Thursday (29th ultimo) up to here, — and finished my accounts — wrote and sent very civil note
(in French) of inquiries and thanks to ‘Monsieur Monsieur le professor Hausmann’ Professor of Mineralogy — dinner at
6 10/.. — Miss Ferrall left me at 8 — counting over my money etc. Rainy afternoon and evening Fahrenheit 59° at 9 p.m. —
Wednesday 4
8
10 25/..
x
Incurred a cross just before getting up thinking of Miss Walker ~ Awoke before it was light — it was raining
torrents and continued so doing till just before I got up — Fahrenheit 58° at 8 1/2 a.m. — afterwards damp wet morning — had the mistress of the
house up — long settling and explaining about the money — she said I should only pay my thalers for 22 groschen at
the postes — so gave her 5 thalers (at 23 groschen each) for Hanoverian groschen — good groschen 24 to the thaler —
Mariengroschen 36 to the thaler — breakfast at 11 — waited some time for the horses — If I and my 2 servants
were here for some weeks, should have my sitting room and bedroom cabinet adjoining and Miss Ferrall’s room for Eugenie,
beds and living for us all 3, at a thaler a day — Off from Göttingen (König von Preussen)
at 12 3/4 — have been very comfortable there — very nice, civil people — the banker (a Jew) would have
given me 1 Ecu de Prusse + 6 bons groschen per Ecu de France of 5 francs — Gottingen a nice town —
sorry I have not after all seen the public anatomical collection — rich valley — corn, grass, potatoes, lime,
tobacco — roads very heavy in consequence of the great quantity of rain — corn chiefly housed about
Gottingen, but on the higher ground at a distance chiefly to cut — where the corn cut a good deal of
cattle geese and pigs — good villages — wooded hill-tops — grass in cock — at 2 10/.. large
ruins of old castle (right) near to good village or nice little town — Germans everywhere very fond
of flowers — Dahlias everywhere — though not particularly good ones — Nordheim good, small, wooden
Town — great many of the houses built up new — good post-house Inn — fine country — pass over handsome new 5 arched
stone bridge over the nice little river Rhoume [Rhume] we turning immediately left to Hanover, and leaving the road (right) to
Seesen — They seemed to know so little at the Poste about the road to Osterode and Clausthal
and the clouds looked so black and the afternoon was so wet gave up the thought of the Brocken for the
present — At 5 10/.. pass through Saltzburg with its considerable remains of old ruined castle (right, on the hill) — long line
of wooden erection for the saltwater to filter through — Saltzbourg [Saltzburg]seems a good village — met
there the duke of something with his 3 carriages and 4 — the 1st a chaise, 2nd a coach, 3rd a cynocephorus
or fourgon — Germans — Saltzburg very picturesquely situated on the little river Rhoume? [Rhume] fine
green valley, and good corn on the higher land — speaking of the duchess de Berri, the French found papers in her apartments
at the Revolution proving her a very Messaline [Messalina] — she was then enceinte, and was soon after
confined at Bath — said to have 4 or 5 children at Rosny — Poor Hector Lucchesi Palli very sorry
for himself — had nothing to do with the last child — was gentleman of the chamber to the King of Naples when in
Paris in Charles x’s time and the duchess fell in love with him then — Einbeck a good, wood, town —
alight at the poste at 5 40/.. — dinner at 7 — before and afterwards till 9 1/2 (Miss Ferrall left me at 8 3/4)
wrote out the accounts and journal of the day — rainy day — Fahrenheit 58° now at 10 1/2 p.m. Put on woollen stockings
and thick woollen sleeves this morning — perhaps my cold rather better tonight but I still feel weak
and unwell and oppressed with it —
Thursday 5
7 1/4
10 1/2
Great deal of rain in the night — but fair this morning — Fahrenheit 55° at 8 20/.. a.m. — slept pretty well and feel rather better this
morning but Eugenie is beginning in the same sort of cold I have had so bad — sore throat great pain in the back etc. —
breakfast at 8 3/4 — Comfortable enough here at the Poste, and White Swan, — just opposite the great old gothic (red sandstone) church
which is said in the books to contain some curiosities but all the churches in Germany are kept shut, and I had no time to lose — Off
from Einbeck, a good little wood town, at 9 50/.. fair, but damp, disagreeable morning — roads (white limestone though the
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