Category The World Book – 1992

Octopus

Bran

In anticipation of playing Octodad: Dadliest Catch with kiddo this weekend, I decided to look up some octopus-related facts to pepper throughout our gaming time, which we will hopefully be able to stream (new internet provider). In the earlier English-language reference works I own, the octopus is almost a mythical creature, one of those horrors that occupy the unknown depths of the ocean. The entry in the 1919 World Book (vol. 7, pp. 4340-4341), for example, makes me feel sorry for the poor, misunderstood octopus, as the World Book repeats over and over again that the octopus is a horrifying and scary creature:

OCTOPUS, ok' toh pus, a genus of deep-sea animals, of repulsive and frightful appearance. The soft, pear-shaped body of the animal is joined to the head by a short neck, and encircling the mouth are eight movable arms, on each of which there are two rows of powerful suckers. The arms are connected at the base by a web. It is these arms that give the creature its name, for octopus is derived from Greek words meaning having eight arms. The octopus cannot swim, but moves along the sea bottom by means of its arms. It lives in coral reefs and among rocks and is most common in the Mediterranean and Asiatic seas, although it reaches its greatest size on the Pacific coast — sometimes fourteen feet from tip to tip of extended arms. Generally the length of arm in the largest specimens is from three and one-half to four feet. The food of the octopus consists of crabs and other small shellfish.

Octopus Woodcut

Divers along coral banks are sometimes caught by the arms of these animals and death is caused by strangulation, drowning or fright. It is possible to loosen the grip of an octopus by seizing it on either side of the mouth and turning it inside out, but it is said that the hideous appearance of the animal is so terrifying that a victim is usually rendered helpless. The Chinese and Italians, who seek the octopus for food, catch the animal by running a pointed stick through the body.

For description of the class to which the octopus belongs see the article Cephalopoda.

The 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica's entry (vol. 19 p. 993) on "Octopus" spends half of its space split between two topics - defending Victor Hugo's depiction of the octopus in Toilers of the Sea and discussing the hectocotylus, the sometimes detachable sperm-carrying arm of the male octopus:

[...] The celebrated account of the octopus given by Victor Hugo in his Travailleurs de la mer is not so fictitious as some critics with a knowledge of natural history have maintained. It is true that the great French author has made the mistake of using the name Cephaloptera, which belongs to a large tropical fish similar to a skate, instead of Cephalopoda, and that he applies the term devil-fish, which belongs to Cephaloptera, to the octopus. His description is exaggerated, imaginative and sensational; but it is correct in its most important particulars, and bears evidence that the author was to some extent personally acquainted with the animal and its habits, although he was not a scientific observer. The octopus feeds on crabs, and crabs feed on carrion, and, therefore, there is nothing impossible in Hugo's account of the skeleton of a drowned man surrounded by the shells of numbers of crabs which the octopus had devoured. Whether an octopus would attack and kill a man is another question, but it certainly might seize him with its arms and suckers while holding to the rocks by other arms, and a man seized in this way when in the water might be in danger of being drowned.

[...] The separation of one of the arms of the male for purposes of reproduction is one of the most remarkable peculiarities of the Octopoda. It does not occur, however, in octopus nor in many other members of the group. One arm is always considerably modified in structure and employed in copulation, but it is only in three genera, one of which is Argonauta, that the arm spontaneously separates. The detached arm is found still alive and moving in the mantle cavity of the female, and when first discovered in these circumstances was naturally regarded by the older naturalists as a parasite. Cuvier, on account of the numerous suckers of the detached arm, gave it the name Hectocotylus (hundred suckers). When the arm is not detached but only altered in structure it is said to be hectocotylized. The extremity of this arm is expanded and assumes the shape of a spoon. Whether detached or not the modified arm possesses a cavity into which the spermatophores are passed and the arm serves to convey them to the mantle cavity of the female.

Most of the rest of the entry is devoted to specific examples of the octopus disrupting the English lobster industry.

Compare the woodcut illustration of the octopus from the World Book entry above to the bottom right specimen in the color plate below from the 1921 Encyclopedia Americana; I highly suspect they were based on the same illustration.

The Encyclopedia Americana's entry on the octopus can be found in volume 20, on page 575, with a color plate inserted just before that page and another illustrative plate inserted between pages 576 and 577. This entry does a far better job of describing the octopus itself without becoming sensationalist:

Octopus Watercolors

OCTOPUS, a genus of the dibranchiate Cephalopoda (q.v.), or cuttlefishes, forming the type of the family Octopodidæ, the members of which group are familiarly known as "poulpes." These forms possess eight arms of equal length, united to each other by a web varying in extent in different forms. The arms possess two rows of sessile, wholly fleshy suckers. The prominent head is joined to the body by a distinct "neck," and the body itself is short, generally more or less rounded in shape and unprovided with side or lateral fins. The shell is internal, and is represented by two short "styles," which lie imbedded in the "mantle." In the octopods the third right arm of the male animals becomes developed to form a "hectocotylus" or sexual organ (see Argonaut); and in some this modified arm is detached from the body and deposited within the mantle cavity of the female for the purpose of fertilizing the eggs, a fresh arm being developed as occasion requires.

The poulpes attained a popular notoriety from the tales which were formerly circulated of gigantic members of this group which had no existence in reality. Some forms spread their limbs 12 or 14 feet, like great spiders, and might, under favorable circumstances, hold under water a person whom they had seized until he had drowned, at the same time biting him with their horny parrot-like jaws; no doubt such accidents have occasionally happened to pearl-divers and the like. Ordinarily, however, the octopus does not attain one-half these dimensions and many species have bodies no larger than an ordinary pear. These animals live in rocky places along shore and about reefs, protecting their soft bodies by sitting in holes and crevices with arms reaching out to seize their victims, which are fishes and any animal they are able to overpower. They are themselves preyed upon by large fishes, turtles, etc. Many species are eaten in various parts of the world and the common one (Octopus vulgaris), of the Mediterranean and neighboring Atlantic coasts, has been speared and taken to market from a time immemorial, and is still a regular object of pursuit, especially in Italy. A deep-water species (Eledone moschata) is trapped for market in from 10 to 20 fathoms of water by lowering earthen jars and leaving them a few hours. The creatures creep into these jars, as a fine hiding-place, and allow themselves to be drawn to the surface. The flesh is eaten boiled, fried and in salads and is preserved by pickling. Sepia (q.v.) is the substance in the "ink-bag": and "cuttlebone" the supporting calcareous plate beneath the skin of certain species. Of the American species O. bairdii and otehrs of the eastern coast dwell in deep water or about the tropical coral reefs. On the Pacific Coast several species are taken near shore and were always utilized by the Indians. Since the settlement of California their flesh is regularly supplies to the San Francisco market, where it is bought by Italians and Chinese. Some specimens brought in there are among the largest known, measuring 14 feet across the outstretched arms. Consult books of conchology, especially Cooke, 'Mollusca' (1895); and 'Standard Natural History' (Vol. I, 1884). See Argonaut; Cephalopoda; Cuttlefish.

American Octopus Varieties

The German-language encyclopedia Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon für das deutsche Volk by Brockhaus, published in 1841, features a short, but thorough article (vol. 4, pp. 436-437) on the Tintenfisch ("ink fish"), a term which encapsulates the cuttlefish, squid, and octopus under a single heading (translation follows):

Tintenfisch, lat. Sepia, heißt eine Gattung Weichthiere, welche zwei große, fast verständig aussehende Augen, einen hornartigen Schnabel und um diesen acht oder zehn große Fangarme mit Saugnäpfen haben. Am Bauche haben sie einen Beutel mit einer schwarzbraunen Flüssigkeit, welche sie willkürlich von sich lassen, um das Wasser zu trüben. Mehre Arten haben unter der Haut des Rückens eine knochige Platte. Man brennt dieselbe weiß, verkauft sie unter dem Namen weißes Fischbein oder Walfischschuppe (lat. os sepiae) und benutzt sie zum Abreiben und Glätten verschiedener Gegenstände. Der hier abgebildete sogenannte Meerpolyp, der Polypus oder Octopus der Alten, hat acht Arme und findet sich zwischen Klippen in den europ. und amerk. Meeren. Seine Arme benutzt er, um sich seiner Beute zu bemächtigen und damit beim Schwimmen zu rudern und um sich auf dem Meeresboden und selbst auf dem Lande fortzubewegen. Die hier noch besonders abgebildeten Saugnäpfe an den Armen wirken ganz wie Schröpfköpfe, indem sie sich luftdicht an die Gegenstände anlegen und dann nach innen eine luftleere Höhlung bilden. Mit denselben kann sich das Thier so fest anheften, daß man ihm die Arme abschneiden muß, um es abzulösen. Es macht besonders auf Krebse Jagd. Merkwürdig ist seine Eigenschaft, seine gewöhnlich rosenrothe Farbe verändern zu können. In einigen Gegenden pflegt man diese Polypen zu essen. Sie werden etwa 6 F. groß, doch erzählt der röm. Naturforscher Plinius von einem derartigen Thiere, welchces 30 F. lange Arme gehabt hätte, die so dick gewesen wären, daß sie ein Mann kaum zu umspannen vermocht. — Der gemeine Tintenfisch, vorzugsweise Sepia genannt, auch Tintenschnecke oder Blackfisch, wird nur über 1 F. lang. Er hat acht kurze Arme und zwei längere Fühler und wird besonders in mittelländ. Meere gefunden. Seine Haut ist röthlich, mit braunen Flecken besetzt. In dem daumenlangen Tintenbeutel befindet sich die braune Flüssigkeit, welche unter dem Namen Sepia als Malerfarbe geschätzt ist. Das Weibchen legt eine Menge Eier, welche traubenförmig aneinander hangen, und daher Seetrauben (lat. uvae maritimae) genannt werden. Auch liefert besonders dieser Tintenfisch das os sepiae. Er ist, wie der Meerpolyp, genießbar. — Der braune Saft der Tintenfische mit Biester vermischt, wurde zuerst von Seydelmann zu Zeichnungen, sogenannten Sepiazeichnungen, benutzt, welche großen Beifall fanden.

Tintenfisch (Latin: sepia) is the name of a genus of mollusks, which have two large, almost intelligent-looking eyes, a horn-like beak, and, surrounding this, eight or ten long tentacles with suction cups. They have a sack on their abdomen filled with a dark-brown liquid, which they can release at will in order to cloud the water. Many varieties have a bony plate under the skin of their back. This can be burned white and sold under the name of "whalebone" or "whale scales" (Latin: os sepiae); they are used for scrubbing and polishing various objects. The so-called ocean poulp, the "polypus" or "octopus" of the ancients, pictured here, has eight arms and can be found in the crags of the European and American seas. It uses its arms to seize its prey, to steer while swimming, and to move itself on the seafloor and even on land. The suction cups on the arms, specially illustrated here, work entirely like cupping glasses, in that they lay airtight onto objects and then create a vacuous cavity inside. The animal can hold on so tightly with these that its arms must be cut off in order to remove it. It particularly likes to hunt crabs. Remarkably, it has the ability to change its normally-pink coloring. In some areas, it is common to eat these poulpes. They grow to about 6 feet [note: I am not sure exactly how long a "foot" here refers to], though the Roman naturalist Pliny tells of a similar animal which supposedly had 30 feet long arms, which were so thick, that a man could barely wrap his arms around them. — The Common Tintenfisch, preferably called sepia [cuttlefish], but also "ink slug" or "black fish" [both of these terms mean cuttlefish], is little more than 1 foot long. It has eight small arms and two longer antennae and are particularly common in the Mediterranean Sea. Its skin is reddish with brown spots. Inside of its thumb-long ink sack is a brown liquid which is treasured as the painter's color sepia. The female lays a large number of eggs, which hang on one another like grapes, and so they are called "sea grapes" (Latin: uvae maritimae). The cuttlebone is particularly common in this Tintenfisch. It is, just like the octopus, edible. — The brown juice of the Tintenfisch, when mixed with colostrum, was first used by Seydelmann for drawing so-called "Sepia Drawings", which were met with great acclaim.

Old German Encyclopedia page on the Octopus

Finally, to end, here are a few fun octopus facts taken from a more modern entry, specifically from the 1992 World Book (vol. 14, pp. 678-679):

  • The octopus has three hearts, two of which are specifically linked to its gills.
  • The octopus is able to grow a new arm if it loses one.
  • The female octopus can lay over 100,000 eggs, though many of these get eaten by other animals.

Vampire

Bran

Halloween approaches, so let's take a peek at a classic creature of the night: the vampire!

Definition and Etymology

The oldest English-language dictionary I own with a "vampire" entry is The Century Dictionary from 1891. This dictionary has an encyclopedic thoroughness and wonderful etymological information. Here is its entry on "vampire," from volume 6, page 6693:

vampire (vam'pīr), n. and a. [Formerly also vampyre; < F. vampire = Sp. Pg. vampiro = D. vampier = G. vampyr = Sw. Dan. vampyr (NL. vampyrus), < Serv. vampir = Bulg. vampir, vapir, vepir, vupir = Pol. wampir, also upior = Little Russ. vampyr, vepyr, vopyr, opyr, upyr, opir, uper = White Russ. upir = Russ. vampirŭ, also upirĭ, upyrĭ, obyrĭ (the Pol. wampir, Russ. vampirŭ, appar. < Serv.), a vampire; cf. North Turk. uber, a witch.] I. n. 1. A kind of spectral being or ghost still possessing a human body, which, according to a superstition existing among the Slavic and other races on the lower Danube, leaves the grave during the night, and maintains a semblance of life by sucking the warm blood of living men and women while they are asleep. Dead wizards, werwolves, heretics, and other outcasts become vampires, as do also the illegitimate offspring of parents themselves illegitimate, and any one killed by a vampire. On the discovery of a vampire's grave, the body, which, it is supposed, will be found all fresh and ruddy, must be disinterred, thrust through with a whitethorn stake, and burned in order to render it harmless.

2. Hence, a person who preys on others; an extortioner or blood-sucker. — 3. Same as vampire-bat. — 4. Theat., a small trap made of two flaps held together by a spring, used for sudden appearances and disappearances of one person. — False vampire, a leaf-nosed bat of South America, erroneously supposed to suck blood. See vampire-bat (b)(1), and cut under Vampyri. — Spectacled vampire. Same as spectacled stenoderm (which see, under stenoderm).

II. a. Of or pertaining to a vampire; resembling a vampire in character; blood-sucking; extortionate; vampiric.

The strong but disinterested wish to co-operate in restoring this noble University to its natural pre-eminence by relieving it from the vampire oppression under which it has pined so long in almost lifeless exhaustion.

Sir W. Hamilton, Discussions, p. 446.

Facts and Figures

The oldest work I have with an entry on the vampire is a facsimile of Brockhaus's Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon from 1841. This will start as our base for what the vampire is, what it does, and how it can be defeated. The entry "Vampyr" can be found in volume 4, on pages 552 (translation given after):

Vampyr heißt in der Naturgeschichte eine große, in den Tropenländern heimische Art Fledermaus (s. d.); ein im Morgenlande seit alten Zeiten herrschender Aberglaube denkt sich aber unter demselben Namen gespenstische Wesen, welche des Nachts umgehen, den Schlafenden das Blut aussaugen und sie dadurch umbringen sollen. Auf diese Art Gestorbene sollten dann wieder Vampyre werden, was die alten griech. Christen schon ungefähr ebenso von Denen glaubten, welche im Kirchenbann starben und die angeblichen Gespenster derselben Brukolakä nannten. In Griechenland, Serbien, Dalmatien, Ungarn ist der Aberglaube an Vampyre noch immer verbreitet und war vor ungefähr 100 Jahren die Veranlassung zu großen Besorgnissen und gerichtlichen Untersuchungen in einigen Gegenden von Ungarn, welche die Aufmerksamkeit von ganz Europa rege machten. In einem Dorfe an der serbischen Grenze sollte nämlich ein Hayduck am Bisse eines Vampyrs gestorben und hierauf ebenfalls als Vampyr seine Freunde und Bekannten gequält, ja mehre derselben schon umgebracht haben. Seine Leiche ward daher mehre Wochen nach dem Tode wieder ausgegraben, ihr ein Pfahl durchs Herz gestoßen und der Kopf abgeschnitten, was auch mit den angeblich durch ihn Umgebrachten geschach und als ein Mittel gilt, solchen Vampyren ein Ende zu machen. Auch in Schottland und Irland ist unter den gemeinen Leuten ein ähnlicher Aberglaube verbreitet, so sehr er auch allem gesunden Menschenverstande widerstreitet. Byron hat ihn zu einem Gedicht, der deutsche Componist Marschner zu einer Oper benutzt. Bildlich werden zuweilen Wucherer und Andere, welche auf ungerechte Weise von Einzelnen oder auch von den Bewohnern eines ganzen Landes Geld erpressen und ihnen gleichsam Schweiß und Blut aussaugen, Vampyre genannt.

Vampyr, in natural history, is the name of a large bat (which see) that makes its home in tropical lands; a superstition which has ruled in eastern lands since ancient times uses the same name to refer to a ghostly being, which goes around at night sucking the blood of the sleeping and thereby killing them. Those who die by this method are supposed to then become vampires themselves; the old Greek Christians believed that this would also happen to those who died excommunicated from the church and they called the resulting spirits 'brukolakä.' The superstition surrounding vampires is still present in Greece, Serbia, Dalmatia, and Hungary; approximately 100 years ago this was the cause of great concern and judicial investigations in a number of areas in Hungary, which caught the attention of all of Europe. In a village on the Serbian border, supposedly, a Hajduk died due to a vampire bite and tormented his friends and acquaintances himself as a vampire, even killing a number of them. His corpse was dug up again a number of weeks after his death, a stake plunged through his heart and his head chopped off, and this was supposedly also done with those he killed in order to bring an end to these vampires. A similar superstition is spread among the common people of Scotland and Ireland, despite how much it goes against all healthy human understanding. Byron used it in a poem, and the German composer Marschner used it in one of his operas. Metaphorically the term vampire is also applied to usurers and others who oppress individuals or even the entire populace of a country unfairly, and thus suck their blood and sweat.

Johnson's Universal Cyclopædia, 1887, reaches to Greek myth for the origin of the vampire and also elaborates on the panic which swept central and eastern Europe; the digging up of graves is no longer confined to a few areas in Hungary. "Vampire" is found in volume 8, on page 249:

Vam'pire [Fr.], according to a superstition still existing among the lower classes in Hungary, Servia, Romania, and the Christian population of the Balkan peninsula, a kind of ghost which during the night leaves the grave and maintains a semblance of life by sucking the warm blood of living men and women. It is probable that this superstition originated from the ancient myth of the lamiæ, but it was much strengthened by the belief, common in the Middle Ages all through the Greek Church, that the bodies of those who died under the ban of the Church were kept alive by the devil, and by him sent out to ruin their friends and relatives. Early in the eighteenth century a vampire panic fell over Servia and Hungary, and spread thence into Germany. Books were written pro et contra, and thousands of graves were opened, and corpses which looked suspicious were fastened with nails and bolts to the ground, that they should not wander any more. Among the Wallachs it is still customary to drive a nail through the head of the corpse into the bottom of the coffin.

The Students Cyclopædia of 1900 clarified the connection to the ancient Greek lamiæ mentioned above, but otherwise adds no new information: "In the mythology of the ancient Greeks, beings of a similar nature existed, called the Lamias. These were beautiful women who allured youths to their embrace in order to feed on their flesh and blood" (volume 2, page 1356).

The eleventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, 1910, combines the mythological vampire and the vampire bat into a single entry; below I have only excerpted the portion that deals with the supernatural being. This entry is notable for attempting to guess at a rational explanation for why such a superstition could have arose (though it makes one wonder just how many people were buried alive back then). This entry can be found in volume 27, on page 876, and includes alternate forms of the vampire not found in my other reference works (that wayward downy feather next to your pillow? total vampire) and expands the sorts of dead who could arise as vampires (suicides, those who met a violent death, etc):

VAMPIRE, a term, apparently of Servian origin (wampir), originally applied in eastern Europe to blood-sucking ghosts, but in modern usage transferred to one or more species of blood-sucking bats inhabiting South America.

In the first-mentioned meaning a vampire is usually supposed to be the soul of a dead man which quits the buried body by night to suck the blood of living persons. Hence, when the vampire's grave is opened, his corpse is found to be fresh and rosy from the blood which he has thus absorbed. To put a stop to his ravages, a stake is driven through the corpse, or the head cut off, or the heart torn out and the body burned, or boiling water and vinegar are poured on the grave. The persons who turn vampires are generally wizards, witches, suicides and those who have come to a violent end or have been cursed by their parents or by the church. But any one may become a vampire if an animal (especially a cat) leaps over his corpse or a bird flies over it. Sometimes the vampire is thought to be the soul of a living man which leaves his body in sleep, to go in the form of a straw or fluff of down and suck the blood of other sleepers. The belief in vampires chiefly prevails in Slavonic lands, as in Russia (especially White Russia and the Ukraine), Poland, and Servia, and among the Czechs of Bohemia and the other Slavonic races of Austria. It became specially prevalent in Hungary between the years 1730 and 1735, whence all Europe was filled with reports of the exploits of vampires. Several treatises were written on the subject, among which may be mentioned Ranft's De masticatione mortuorum in lumulis (1734) and Calmet's Dissertation on the Vampires of Hungary, translated into English in 1750. It is probable that this superstition gained much ground from the reports of those who had examined the bodies of persons buried alive though believed to be dead, and was based on the twisted position of the corpse, the marks of blood on the shroud and on the face and hands — results of the frenzied struggle in the coffin before life became extinct. The belief in vampires has also taken root among the Albanians and modern Greeks, but here it may be due to Slavonic influence.

The World Book encyclopedia of 1919 mentions that the victims of vampires are often unaware of what is killing them: "According to the absurd belief, so quietly does it work that the victim is not aware of what is happening, but gradually wastes away and dies" (volume 10, page 6025). The Encyclopedia Americana of 1924 notes that this is why corpses were carefully inspected after death, in case they need special anti-vampire treatment: In some places where the belief in vampires prevails, when a person dies a careful examination is made by a skilled person lest he should have been killed by a vampire and so be liable to become one; if this is suspected, the body may be pierced with a stake cut from a green tree, the head cut off and the heart burned. This is also the process for destroying the vampire spirit in a corpse believed to be already a vampire. The belief has been treated by Philostratus and Phlegon of Tralles; has served a literary purpose in Goethe's 'Braut von Korinth' and the operas of Palma, Hart and von Lindpainter. While seemingly a primitive and savage superstition, it has survived in many forms. Consult Ralton, 'Russian Folk-tales'; Hert, 'Der Werwolf' (1862); Stoker, B., 'Dracula' (1899)" (volume 27, page 662).

Taking a peek inside modern American and European encyclopedias, we find that the Brockhaus of 1984 (volume 22, page 379) states that vampires are a variant of the traditional German blood-sucker mentioned in Martin Luther's Table Talks. It also mentions the lamia found in Johnson's Universal and the Student Cyclopædia entries, but attributes the term to Latin literature. This entry also mentions the 1913 film Dracula, and directs the reader to a separate entry on Dracula. The 1992 edition of the World Book is the first of my reference works to mention Vlad the Impaler, in its description of Stoker's Dracula: "The character of Dracula is based on Vlad Tepes, a cruel prince from Walachia (now part of Romania). Vlad was nicknamed Dracula, which in Romanian means son of the devil or son of a dragon" (volume 20, page 284). The New Standard Encyclopedia from 1993 mentions the related word "vamp," a "scheming, heartless woman who lures a man to moral destruction" and its origin in the 1914 film A Fool There Was (volume 18, page V-11). The 1997 Encyclopædia Britannica (volume 12, page 253) is the only encyclopedia I own which includes a picture (a movie still featuring Bela Lugosi in the role of Dracula). The influence of Stoker's novel and its many film adaptations surely led to the signs "known to every schoolchild" for recognizing a vampire (they have sharp fangs and "they cast no shadow and are not reflected in mirrors") and warding one off ("displaying a crucifix or sleeping with a wreath of garlic around one's neck"); this information did not appear in the older encyclopedias.

Japanese Reference Works

The entire impetus for writing this post came about because I ordered some books from Jirō Akagawa's comedic mystery series Vampire All Year Round (吸血鬼はお年ごろ), about the daughter of a legitimate vampire from Transylvania who, along with her dad, solves supernatural mysteries in Japan. The Japanese word for vampire used in the book title is 吸血鬼, kyūketsuki, which breaks down kanji-wise into "blood sucking ghost/demon;" bloodsucking (吸血) already existed as a concept, so this word attaches the primary function of a vampire to the generic Japanese term for demon or ghost, 鬼. The directly imported word ヴァンパイア (vanpaia) is also used. The Encyclopædia Heibonsha features a wonderful table showing all of the major mentions of vampires in literature and film from 1751 (Dom Augustin Calmet's Traité sur les apparitions des esprits et sur les vampires ou les revenans de Hongrie, de Moravie) through 1979, including the 1922 German film Nosferatu (volume 4, pages 179-180).

Pompeii

Bran

Our local science center is currently hosting the travelling exhibit "Pompeii: The Exhibition." I plan on viewing the exhibition tomorrow. I visited Pompeii myself on a rainy day back in 2006, along with the "secret cabinet" at the Museum of Naples, and I look forward to viewing the various artifacts. In anticipation, I decided to look up Pompeii in my various encyclopedia sets. The general caveat that will always accompany blog posts of this nature: the information stated below is quoted from these old reference works for entertainment purposes only; accuracy has not been verified. Always double-check information before citing. Books are fallible.

Illustration from the 1919 World Book

The 1919 World Book (volume 8, pages 4748-4749) has a rather short article on the subject of Pompeii; the large drawing of the forum (p. 4749) takes up nearly as much space as the text. "For over fifteen centuries after the eruption, the site of the buried cities was unknown. Pompeii lay at the mouth of the River Sarnus, near the Bay of Naples, but the great disaster so changed the geography of the region — turning the river back from its course and raising the sea beach — that men had no way of discovering the site. In fact, for a long time its very name was almost forgotten. Then, by a happy accident, interest in the buried cities was revived. In 1748 a peasant who was sinking a well in that locality found some statues and other antiquities, and this led to extensive excavations in the region" (4749). The entry does not mention specifically how the residents of Pompeii perished nor does it mention their remains, focusing instead on the makeup of the city. The 1958 World Book (volume 13, pages 6482-6484) generally copies the same text, but replaces the drawing with a lot of B&W photographs - it features more pictures of Pompeii and its artifacts than any of the other reference works I looked at. One interesting line it does add on to the original entry is a note that a description of the eruption (since the entry, like the 1919 version, does not itself go into the sordid details) can be found in a fictional account: "Lord Lytton gives a description of the tragedy in his novel The Last Days of Pompeii" (6484).

One of the many, many photographs in the 1958 World Book. A house close to where I work has a reproduction of this on their doorway. CAVE CANEM!

The 1992 World Book (volume 15, pages 656-658) features a new text, written in very simple language. It features three color photographs in the entry. This version now includes the details lacking from the previous World Books; rather than just state that the volcano erupted and the buildings were buried, the human element is brought in, beginning with Pliny the Younger's account: "The Roman writer Pliny the Younger told in a letter how he led his mother to safety through the fumes and falling stones. His uncle, the writer Pliny the Elder, commanded a fleet that rescued some people. He landed to view the eruption and died on the shore" (657). This is followed by a description of what happened to unlucky citizens of Pompeii and the archaeological significance of their mode of death: "Some of the victims were trapped in their homes and killed by hot ashes. Others breathed the poisonous fumes and died as they fled. Archaeologists find the shells (molds) of the bodies preserved in the hardened ash. By carefully pouring plaster into the shells, they can make detailed copies of the individuals, even to the expressions of agony on their faces" (657). One of the photo captions states that at this time, three-fourths of Pompeii had been excavated (658); in the previous encyclopedia editions, only half had been uncovered.

The 1910 Encyclopædia Britannica (volume 22, pages 50 to 56) features a city map on page 52, showing the extent to which the city had been excavated at the time. The article devotes most of its space to the history of the city before the volcanic eruption and to the physical description of the city at the time, as the archaeological at the time viewed it. There are some interesting anecdotes given, such as this one from Tacitus' Annals: "In A.D. 59 a tumult took place in the amphitheatre between the citizens and visitors from the nieghbouring colony of Nuceria. Many were killed and wounded on both sides. The Pompeians were punished for this violent outbreak by the prohibition of all theatrical exhibitions for ten years (Tacitus, Ann.. xiv. 17). A characteristic, though rude, painting found on the walls of one of the houses gives a representation of this event" (50). One nice feature of this entry is that it links as much historical data as it can back to Roman sources; Tacitus is cited numerous times, as is Cicero ("whose letters abound with allusions to his Pompeian villa" 50), Seneca, and Pliny.

Map from the 1910 Encyclopædia Britannica

As mentioned, the entry focuses on the description of the city as can be gleamed from the archaeological record. The main streets, for instance, "are uniformly paved with large polygonal blocks of hard basaltic lava, fitted very closely together, though now in many cases marked with deep ruts from the passage of vehicles in ancient times. They are also in all cases bordered by raised footways on both sides, paved in a similar manner; and for the convenience of foot-passengers, which was evidently a more important consideration than the obstacle which the arrangement presented to the passage of vehicles, which indeed were probably only allowed for goods traffic, these are connected from place to place by stepping-stones raised above the level of the carriage-way" (51). Numerous examples of graffiti are mentioned, the first in a footnote on the amphitheatres: "The interest taken by the Pompeians in the sports of the amphitheatre is shown by the contents of the numerous painted and scratched inscriptions relating to them which have been found in Pompeii — notices of combats, laudatory inscriptions, including even references to the admiration which gladiators won from the fair sex, &c." (53). These are mentioned again towards the end of the article: "Still more curious, and almost peculiar to Pompeii, are the numerous writings painted upon the walls, which have generally a semi-public character, such as recommendations of candidates for municipal offices, advertisements, &c., and the scratched inscriptions (graffiti), which are generally the mere expression of individual impulse and feeling, frequently amatory, and not uncommonly conveyed in rude and imperfect verses" (56). Other facts about the residences unearthed include notes on climate control ("elaborate precautions were taken against heat, but none against cold, which was patiently endured" 54) and on the tools and artifacts found: "Another curious discovery was that of the abode of a sculptor, containing his tools, as well as blocks of marble and half-finished statues. The number of utensils of various kinds found in the houses and shops is almost endless, and, as these are in most cases of bronze, they are generally in perfect preservation" (54).

The 1910 Encyclopædia Britannica article states that the population of Pompeii was probably around 20,000 (51); this is the figure given by all of my reference works except for one — the 1984 Brockhaus (volume 17, pages 165-165) estimates the population to be between 12,000 and 15,000 residents. The Britannica estimates that 10% of that population perished in the volcanic eruption, based on "the number of skeletons discovered" (51). Unlike the World Book, the Britannica makes no qualms of mentioning the bodies, even if the cause of death is not strictly given: "Almost all the skeletons and remains of bodies found in the city were discovered in similar situations, in cellars or underground apartments — those who had sought refuge in flight having apparently for the most part escaped from destruction, or having perished under circumstances where their bodies were easily recovered by the survivors. According to Cassius Dio, a large number of the inahbitants were assembled in the theatre at the time of the catastrophe, but no bodies have been found there, and they were probably sought for and removed shortly afterwards. Of late years it has been found possible in many cases to take casts of the bodies found — a complete mould having been formed around them by the fine white ashes, partially consolidated by water" (55).

The 1965 Encyclopædia Britannica (volume 18, pages 201-205) features an updated map of the city, but generally quotes verbatim the 1910 article. It does, however, make one correction regarding the design of the houses. The 1910 article has surmised that the walls facing the street were very plain (particularly in contrast to the inner courtyards), but the 1965 version gives a correction: "The careful investigation in recent years of the buildings in the eastern portion of the Strada dell' Abbondanza has shown that previous conceptions of the appearance of the exterior of the houses were entirely erroneous. The upper stories were diversified by balconies, open loggias, colonnades, etc., while the lower portions of the façades were painted, often with scenes of considerable interest" (202). The 1997 Encyclopædia Britannica (volume 9, pages 590-592), on the other hand, has a completely rewritten article, which is fairly lengthy for a Micropædia article, with an (again) updated map and a single black-and-white photograph. This entry is particularly nice for the attention it gives to the history of the lengthy archaeological excavation: "Early digging was haphazard and often irresponsible; excavators were primarily treasure seekers, hunting for imposing buildings or museum objects. Haphazard digging was brought to a stop in 1860, when the Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli became director of the excavations. [...] Fiorelli also developed the technique of making casts of bodies by pouring cement into the hollows formed in the volcanic ash when the bodies disintegrated" (591). Similarly, there are nice notes on the cultural impact of the rediscovery of Pompeii: "The laudatory pronouncements of the eminent German classicist Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who made his first trip to Naples in 1755, and the etchings of Giambattista Piranesi did much to popularize the excavations. Naples, Pompeii, and Herculaneum became important stops on the European Grand Tour made by English visitors" (591).

Briefly returning to the 1984 Brockhaus: this was the only encyclopedia to directly mention the pornographic, which it includes in a list of the different types of graffiti found: "Wandinschriften geben Auskunft über Begebenheiten des tägl. Lebens: Geschäftsanzeigen, Wahlagitationen, Gladiatorenscherze, Liebesgeständnisse sowie pornograph. Darstellungen" (Wall inscriptions provide information about everyday life: job postings, campaign slogans, gladiator jokes, love confessions and even pornographic depictions, 165). It also gives an exact date of the eruption: August 24, 79. I shall mention one final encyclopedia, the 1993 New Standard Encyclopedia (volume 13, pages 471-473), which features very vivid, almost literary descriptions of the demise of the residents: "Out of the great, dark cloud that shot up from the mountain, masses of scorching pumice fragments, some of them as large as three inches (7.6 cm) across, rained down on Pompeii. Deadly sulfurous gases emitted by the hot material killed many persons as they ran through the streets, and killed some who fled to their cellars or huddled in inner rooms to escape the falling rock. Others waited until the doorways of their homes were blocked, then escaped from second-story windows, only to fall in the continuing lethal deluge. When 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 m) of the pumice covered the city a fine ash moistened by steam began to fall. Breathing in this smothering substance, the people who had survived so far but had not yet escaped out to sea were suffocated" (472). This encyclopedia, in contrast to the others, claims that nearly three-fourths of the population perished in the eruption. It also, like the 1997 Encyclopædia Britannica, focuses on the cultural impacts the archaeological discovery of Pompeii caused: "Antiquities recovered from Pompeii were carried off to museums, and created a trend toward neoclassic design that swept the art world. [...] A romantic novel, The Last Days of Pompeii (1834) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, captured the public imagination and made the lost city familiar to all" (473).

Update: The exhibit (Pompeii: The Exhibition) was great. It first led you through multiple galleries meant to give an impression of everyday life in the city. Then there was a "4D" show you had to pass through representing the eruption, followed by a final gallery consisting of real casts of victims. The exhibit quoted the same date as the Brockhaus: August 24, 79. It said the city had more inhabitants, though.

This boar and dog have spouts in their mouths; they were originally part of a fountain.

There were multiple casts of people, but this one (a dog) stuck out to me the most.