Pickwick Plumbs the Hampstead Ponds: Chapter One in its Scientific Contexts

[...]a short walk would have taken Mr. Pickwick from Hampstead ponds to their known source somewhere in the vicinity of Caen Woods. When Pickwick faithfully records in his everready notebook the "singular circumstance" of a forty-two year old horse kept out for two or three weeks at a time...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Dickens quarterly 2015-12, Vol.32 (4), p.283-292
Main Author: METZ, NANCY AYCOCK
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
British & Irish literature
Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)
Drownings
English literature
Scholarly communication
Science
Scientists
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Summary:[...]a short walk would have taken Mr. Pickwick from Hampstead ponds to their known source somewhere in the vicinity of Caen Woods. When Pickwick faithfully records in his everready notebook the "singular circumstance" of a forty-two year old horse kept out for two or three weeks at a time, Dickens calls up a whole genre of this reportage, a good example of which is Kirby's Wonderful and Eccentric Museum (1820), which recorded "singular instances" of, among other phenomena, human longevity past the 130 year mark, adoption across animal species, extreme sleepwalking behaviors, the preservation of eggs from one century to the next, and the spontaneous growth of vegetation within the human body. First Series, 1835-1843. First Report of the Proceedings, Recommendations, and Transactions ofthe British Association for the Advancement of Science.
ISSN:0742-5473
2169-5377
2169-5377
DOI:10.1353/dqt.2015.0045