CURIOSITIES OF CIVILIZATION. CURIOSITIES OF CIVILIZATION. REPRINTED FROM THE "QUARTERLY" & "EDINBURGH" REVIEWS. BY ANDREW WYNTER, M.D. SEVENTH EDITION. LONDON: ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY, AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. [_The Right of Translation is reserved._] TO THE READER. The following Essays have been reprinted from the pages of the _Quarterly_ and _Edinburgh Reviews_, with the kind permission of their proprietors. It may be necessary, however, to state that, with the exception of the paper on the "Mortality in Trades and Professions," which was published in the _Edinburgh Review_ of January, 1860, the whole of them have appeared in the _Quarterly Review_ during the last six years. The date of each essay is given in the list of contents; but, where necessary, corrections have been made, so as to bring each article up to the knowledge of the present day. A. W. COLEHERNE COURT, OLD BROMPTON. _August, 1860._ CONTENTS. PAGE. ADVERTISEMENTS (1855) 1 FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS (1855) 53 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS (1855) 93 RATS (1857) 128 LUNATIC ASYLUMS (1857) 150 THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT (1854) 200 WOOLWICH ARSENAL (1858) 245 SHIPWRECKS (1858) 288 LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS (1859) 325 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH (1854) 349 FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE (1855) 401 THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES (1856) 451 MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS (1860) 499 ADVERTISEMENTS. It is our purpose to draw out, as a thread might be drawn from some woven fabric, a continuous line of advertisements from the newspaper press of this country, since its establishment to the present time; and, by so doing, to show how distinctly, from its dye, the pattern of the age through which it ran is represented. If we follow up to its source any public institution, fashion, or amusement, which has flourished during a long period of time, we can gain some idea of our national progress and development; but it strikes us that in no manner can we so well obtain at a rapid glance a view of the salient points of generations that have passed, as by consulting those small voices that have cried from age to age from the pages of the press, declaring the wants, the losses, the amusements, and the money-making eagerness of the people.