Solidified wine 2,000 years old : glimpses of life in the ancient city of Pompeii. Dr. Louis Sambon on wines and foods: an interesting interview / by J.V. Morton.

  • Morton, J. V.
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Solidified wine 2,000 years old : glimpses of life in the ancient city of Pompeii. Dr. Louis Sambon on wines and foods: an interesting interview / by J.V. Morton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Dr. Sambon’s object in going to work at the Zoo was the elucidation of human tropical diseases. This may seem strange, but the following was his line of argument : the Gardens contain a large num¬ ber of animals from the most sundered parts of the tropical zone, and these animals are infested with parasites, or are suffering from diseases peculiar to the tropics, many similar to, some probably identical with, those which affect man- there. Their study should throw a flood of light on the many obscure problems of human tropical pathology. His reason¬ ing was correct, and his researches proved wonder¬ fully successful. Indeed, in consequence of his illuminating discoveries, he suggested that a School of Comparative Pathology be established at the Gardens for the purpose of advancing not only animal, but chiefly human, pathology. AN ALEXANDRINE WINE CUP. This wine cup was also found in the Villa of Floras, near Pompeii. The Ancient Romans, like the Ancient Egyptians, liked to be reminded of the fact that “ in the midst of life we are in death ”—hence the skeleton engraved on the wine cup. In Advance of His Times. On his return from the West Indies in 1914, Dr. Sambon made two important suggestions. He pro¬ posed (1) the formation of a floating school of tropical medicine, and (2) a thorough investigation of tropical diseases of unknown causation to be carried out in the smaller laboratory-like West Indian Islands, together with a serious attempt at the eradication of elephantiasis, leprosy, and pellagra from the otherwise healthy island of Bar¬ bados. With regard to the floating school, we cannot do better than quote from Sir James Cantlie’s article on the subject. He says : “ The writer well re¬ members the spirit in which a proposal made by Dr. Sambon was received in the year 1899, when the formation of a School of Tropical Medicine was first thought of in Britain. He argued then that it should take the form of a floating school and labora¬ tory, instead of setting up an establishment on shore, for even at the Albert Dock, in the heart of the shipping, the cases of tropical ailments coming there would be too few to supply material sufficient to teach from, or for investigation purposes. Such a departure from the legitimate teaching of medi¬ cine, as by means of a floating school as Sambon then proposed, was received with the hilarity which the ideas of an advanced thinker usually are when first broached ; it has taken twenty years for Dr. Sambon’s proposal to be treated as other than a dream, but at the meeting in June, 1919, in the British temple of medicine, it was received with sympathy, approval and acclamation. Let us hope it will not be twenty years more before it finds a fruition and a practical issue.” Figuring in The Age of the Earth. Not for nothing did Dr. Sambon, as a boy, study the Vesuvian crater belching forth steam and lava. Here is a thrilling narrative of a descent into the active crater of Stromboli. It is taken from The Age of the Earth, published in 1908, by Dr. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S., Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford. “ A steep ash-slope extended from the edge of the crater to the foot of the active cones, and down this, crossing the still smoking cakes of lava which the cones were continually ejecting, my friend Sambon, an experienced and intrepid volcanologist, started to run. Anxious to get a nearer view, I followed him, arid as we stopped together he remarked, 1 Now you are here, there is but one thing to say—-Don’t run away, or you will be killed.’ ‘ Run away ! ’ This to an Englishman born in Tipperary! Was it likely ? ‘ As to the four cones to the right,’ said Sambon, ‘ don’t mind them ; the only one I fear is that little spitfire on the left ’ (we were close to it!) ‘ Good ; but when it goes off tell me what I am to do.’ ‘You must look up into the air, and when you see the stones coming down, dodge them ! ’ ” “ We waited in the position the front rank takes to receive cavalry. It seemed a long time, but was only five minutes, and then the volcano went off like a cannon, but a cannon with a mouth many yards across. Red-hot stones, sand, and steam were shot out with an appearance remarkably like the flash from a gun, but of longer duration. One glance at this, and then upwards into the air. Down plunged the ragged fragments of half-cooled lava, from a height of 200 feet or more. We had only to stay still without much dodging, but one large mass fell between us, and that is now on its way home to Trinity College Museum. Then a loud cry of ‘ Look out! ’ from our friends out of range above ; for the scoriae had fallen above and behind us, and were now rolling and bouncing down the loose, steep ash slopes. It must have been a ludicrous sight, the activity we displayed as we hopped, skipped and jumped out of this avalanche, while all the time fine sand and little stones (‘ lapilli ’) drove down upon us like a shower of hail. It was over at last, and we rushed up the slope to join our friends, lest another explosion should catch us on the way. Hearty congratulations from \ them ; it was something to have passed unscathed through the volcanic fires.” Best Informed Man on Food. Dr. Sambon is probably one of the best informed men on food. In the course of his medical researches, he began to study those famines which often precede or follow epidemics and the way they can be fought; thus he started collecting food and cookery books of all times and places. These now constitute a notable collection. Some of his manuscripts and early printed books of the sixteenth century, with curious woodcuts of culinary utensils, trussed fowls and pot herbs are extremely interesting. When war broke out he began to study the various food-yielding plants of England, and made experi¬ ments to discover how these might be utilised profitably should all imports cease. His War Work. Dr. Sambon was, indeed, one of the great figures thrown up by the war. Our fighting forces never lost grip of the situation. If Britannia’s trident became blunted in the straggle, she still retained sufficient power to hold the seas. Our ships went to and fro—not always safe, and never actually