which was the same in other respects, was likewise to have a gallipot and a red rag, to denote the particular nature of their vocation." The origin of the barbers' pole is to be traced to the period when the barbers were also surgeons, and practised phlebotomy. To assist this operation, it being necessary for the patient to grasp a staff, a stick or a pole was always kept by the barber-surgeon, together with the fillet or bandaging he used, for tying the patient's arm. When the pole was not in use the tape was tied to it, that they might be both together when wanted. On a person coming in to be bled, the tape was disengaged from the pole, and bound round the arm, and the pole was put into the person's hand; after it was done with, the tape was again tied on the pole, and in this state, pole and tape were often hung at the door, for a sign or notice to passengers that they might there be bled: doubtless the competition for custom was great, because as our ancestors, were great admirers of bleeding, they demanded the operation frequently. At length, instead of hanging out the identical pole used in the operation, a pole was painted with stripes round it, in imitation of the real pole and its bandagings, and thus came the sign. That the use of the pole in bleeding was very ancient, appears from an illumination in a missal of the time of Edward I., wherein the usage is repre sented. Also in "Comenii Orbis pictus," there is an engraving of the like practice. "Such a staff," says Brand, who mentions these graphic illustrations, “is to this very day put into the hand of patients undergoing phlebotomy by every village practitioner." 66 THE WEATHER PROGNOSTICATOR, Through all the Lunations of each Year, for ever. [The "Weather Prognosticator," taken from Hone's "Every Day Book," originally appeared in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine," vol. III., pp. 457. 458, to whom it was communicated by the celebrated. Divine and Biblical Commentator, the Rev. Thomas Clarke.] This table, and the accompanying remarks, are the result of many years' actual observation, the whole being constructed on a due consideration of the attraction of the sun and moon in their several positions respecting the earth, and will, by simple inspection, show the observer what kind of weather will most probably follow the entrance of the moon into any of her quarters, and that so near the truth as to be seldom or never found to fail. MOON. TIME OF CHANGE. If the New Moon-the First Quarter the Full Moon-or the Last Quarter, happens 1. The nearer the time of the moon's change, first quarter, full, and last quarter is to midnight, the fairer will the weather be during the seven following days. 2. The space for this calculation occupies from ten at night till two next morning. |