Some time afterwards, S---- inquired what was meant by the circulation
of the blood. "How are we sure that it does move? You told me that it
doesn't move after we die, then nobody can have seen it really moving
in the veins; that beating that I feel in my pulse does not feel like
any thing running backwards and forwards; it beats up and down."

The lady to whom S---- addressed these questions and observations,
unfortunately could not give him any information upon this subject,
but she had at least the prudence, or honesty, to tell the boy that
"she did not know any thing about the matter."

S---- should have been shown the circulation of the blood in fishes:
which he might have seen by a microscope.

Children's minds turn to such inquiries; surely, if they are intended
for physicians, these are the moments to give them a taste for their
future profession, by associating pleasure with instruction, and
connecting with the eagerness of curiosity the hope of making
discoveries; a hope which all vivacious young people strongly feel.

(February 16th.) S---- objected to that fable of Phaedrus in which it
is said, that a boy threw a stone at AEsop, and that AEsop told the boy
to throw a stone at another passenger, pointing to a rich man. The boy
did as AEsop desired, and the rich man had the boy hanged.

S---- said, that he thought that AEsop should have been hanged, because
AEsop was the cause of the boy's fault.

How little suited _political_ fables are to children. This fable,
which was meant to show, we suppose, that the _rich_ could not, like
the poor, be insulted with impunity, was quite unintelligible to a boy
(nine years old) of _simple_ understanding.

(July 19th, 1796.) Amongst "_Vulgar errours_," Sir Thomas Browne
might have mentioned the common notion, that if you take a hen and
hold her head down to the ground, and draw a circle of chalk round
her, she will be enchanted by this magical operation so that she
cannot stir. We determined to try the experiment, for which Dr.
Johnson would have laughed at us, as he laughed at Browne[118] for
trying "_the hopeless experiment_" about the magnetic dials.

A hen's head was held down upon a stone flag, and a chalk line was
drawn before her; she did not move. The same hen was put into a circle
of chalk that had been previously drawn for her reception; her head
was held down according to the letter of the charm, and she did not
move; line or circle apparently operated