On page 234 where Gulliver describes the set of bellows used by the physician to attempt to cure his cholick, he mentions they had a "long slender Muzzle of Ivory." It struck me as peculiar that he should be so specific about the material the muzzle was made from, and ivory is usually a decorative material and it seems odd it should be used for a scientific instrument (bellows being scientific in this case).
The OED says this about ivory:
The hard, white, elastic, and fine-grained substance (being dentine of exceptional hardness) composing the main part of the tusks of the elephant, mammoth (fossil n. and adj.), hippopotamus, walrus, and narwhal; it forms a very valuable article of commerce, being extensively employed as a material for many articles of use or ornament.
It doesn't have a complex meaning, nor has the meaning changed at all over time.
Upon searching for the word ivory in the ECCO database, I came across a text titled "The experimental husbandman and gardener: containing a new method of improving estates and gardens" by Georg Andreas Agricola, published 1726. Also on the title page was this line "Great variety of New Discoveries relating to Grafting...of Reversing of Trees and Digesting their Juices to bring them to bear Fruit."
He makes this reference to ivory in this book:
"When the incision is made about the Bud, they loosen it a little with the point of a Knife, on which occasion 'tis better to make use of an Ivory Knife than one of Iron, which if it is any way rusty taints the Sap, and is very prejudicial to Trees." (p138)
From the title of the book I get the impression this text is one of slightly wacky experimentation, which as we discussed in class, was becoming popular in England at the time. This book indeed sounds like some of the experiments being performed at this fictional academy of Lagado. From the references to the ivory knife and its superiority to an iron knife I gather the testing of different materials was simply a part of the fad of experimentation. Putting an ivory muzzle on a pair of bellows was perhaps mindful of contamination by rust, although perhaps a bit unnecessary considering the value of the material.
Well, that's certainly an interesting bit of information. To be honest, I was also curious as to why Ivory was used; it seemed to be a very specific an unnecessary detail. Of course, I brushed this off as Swift seems to often use an obscene amount of detail to describe things that he probably shouldn't detail at all - much like the detail in Gulliver's use (or non-use, rather) of the "facilities" in Lilliput. But the ivory detail makes for really interesting reading!
ReplyDeleteI think ivory is was also included because although decorative it also rather expensive, rare, but most importantly exotic due to the fact it came from animals not readily available in England/Europe. Therefore it seems to me, rather fitting for a "travel" narrative to new and exotic lands.
ReplyDelete