Fools and Foolishness
Harry C. McKown
Number of quotes: 7
Book ID: 90 Page: 16/17
Section: 4B
Queen Isabella of Spain, the supporter of Columbus and his explorations, once boasted that she had “taken only two baths in my life” and was “proud of it.”In the 1,000-room palace of Catherine the Great of Russia there was only one bathtub - a small affair made of tin - and it was located in a “meager and mean room.”
“The Queen (Elizabeth) hath built herself a bath wherein she doth bathe herself once a month, whether she require it or no,” ran a snappy item from a gossip sheet of Queen Elizabeth’s time.
When the Saracens invaded Spain they brought with them bath tubs and the practice of bathing. But pious Spain would have nothing to do with “this abomination of the infidel.” And King Ferdinand issued a royal edict commanding that all bath tubs be destroyed.
. . . .
In 1845 the Boston City Council prohibited bathing except on the advice of a physician, and this law was in effect until 1862. A somewhat similar law in Philadelphia failed to pass by two votes. In 1846 the state of Virginia taxed bathtubs thirty dollars a year.
Quote ID: 2357
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 90 Page: 22
Section: 4B
When the idea of gas street lights was first introduced into the meeting of the city council of Boston it was rejected on the basis of the following all-embracing arguments.Religious – God meant it to be dark.
Moral – It will kill fear of darkness.
Police – Thieves will be emboldened.
Quote ID: 2358
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 90 Page: 93
Section: 4B
Scientist Simon Newcomb wrote in 1906, just as success of the airplane was in the offing, “The demonstration that no combination of known substances, known forms of machinery, and known forms of force can be united in a practicable manner by which men shall fly seems to the writer to be as complete as it is possible for the demonstration of any physical fact to be.” –SIMON NEWCOMB, “Sidelights on Astronomy,” p. 345, Harper and Brothers, 1906.
Quote ID: 2359
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 90 Page: 110/111
Section: 4B
From ancient times came the theory that the arteries carry air, and this is exactly what the word “artery” means –“air tube” or “air carrier.” Williams Harvey, highly respected court physician to James I, to Charles I, and to the boy who later became Charles II, after a great deal of dissection and experimentation, dared to explain his (our modern) theory of circulation-the functions of the arteries, veins, and lungs. His colleagues denounced him bitterly as a “crack-brained fool” for opposing Galen, and he was all but ostracized by his associates and friends. He lost his official position and most of his practice.
Quote ID: 2360
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 90 Page: 112/113
Section: 4B
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was a French chemist who made a number of important contributions, probably the best known of which was his work with oxygen. He overthrew the phlogistic theory, which had delayed the development of chemistry for over a century.. . . .
He held that the function of the lungs was not to cool the blood, as Galen had thought, but to put oxygen into the blood and to throw off the carbon dioxide.
. . . .
He was arrested, tried by a Revolutionary tribunal, and on May 8th, 1794, he was guillotined.
Quote ID: 2361
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 90 Page: 133/134
Section: 4B
Galileo studied the heavens and came to the conclusion that the earth, instead of the sun, moved-that is, that the earth moved around the sun.. . . .
He went to Rome, was examined by the Inquisition, threatened with torture, and forced to kneel and recant his heretical beliefs. He spent the last seven years of his life under very severe restrictions-virtually a prisoner.
Quote ID: 2362
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 90 Page: 145
Section: 4B
In 1888 Thomas Edison marketed his first phonograph, and within a few years it took the country by storm. That is, it took everybody by storm except the music critics. These dignitaries condemned it as “a great hindrance to musical education,” and urged that musical patrons “refuse to be enticed by it.” Now, this “hindrance” is used in musical education in nearly every school in the country.
Quote ID: 2363
Time Periods: 7
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