******
Nostoriety *
O nose! � I am as proud of thee
As any mountain of its snows!
I gaze on thee and feel that pride
A Roman knows!
Poet unknown, The Story of Snuff and Snuff Boxes, Mattoon M. Curtis, Bramhall House, New York, 1935. pp74
Proclus with's hand his nose can never wipe,
His hand too little is his nose to grype;
He sneezing calls not live, for why? He heares
Himself not sneeze, the sound's so far from's ears:
"Of Sneezing", Volume 2, Chapter 9, page 321, The Works of Sir Thomas Moore, Pseudodoxia epidemica, Sir Thomas Moore, John Grant, Edinburgh, 1927, pp 145.
****
Part I, Canto I, Line280 ... So, learned Taliacotius, from
The brawny part of porter's bum,
Cut supplemental noses, which
Would last as long as parent breech;
But when the date of Nock was out,
Off drop'd the sympathetic snout.
Zachary Grey's footnote:
So learned Toliacoatiuis, .... Gasper Taliacotius was born at Boninia, A.D. 1553, and was professor of physic and surgery there. He died 1599. His statue stands in the anatomy theatre, holding a nose in its hand. He wrote a treatise in Latin, called Chirurgia Nota, in which he teaches the art of ingrafting noses, ears, lips, &c. with the proper instruments and bandages: this book has passed through two editions. Many are of opinion that Taliacotius never put his ingenious contrivances in practice; they imagine that such operations are too painful and difficult to be attempted, and doubt of the success: however, Taliacotius is not singular in his doctrine; for he shews, in lib i.cap.19. That Alexander Benedictus, a famous writer in surgery, described the operation for lost noses before him; as does the great anatomist Vefalius: and Ambr. Pareus mentions a surgeon that practiced this art with success in several instances. Our own countryman, Mr Charles Barnard, sergent-sergeon to Queen Anne, asserts, That it has been practiced with wonderful dexterity and success as maybe proved from authorities not to be counterfeited, whatever scruples some, who have not examined the history, may entertain concerning either the truth or possibility of the fact; so that it is a most surprising thing, that few or none should have since attempted to imitate so worthy and excellent a pattern. Wotton on Ancient and Modern Learning, c.36. (Dr H.) See an humorous description of Taliacotius and his practice, Tatler, No 260. Dr Fludd, a Rosicrusian philosopher and physician, mentioned v.541. Has improved upon this story: Defense of Weapon Salve, or the Squeezing of Parson Foster's Spunge, 1635, p132. He informs us, as he pretends from unexceptionable authority, of a certain nobleman in Italy, who lost a great part of his nose in a duel: he was advised by one of his physicians to take one of his slaves, and to make a wound in his arm, and to join the little remainder of the nose to the wounded arm of his slave, and to continue it there for some time, till the flesh of the arm was united to his nose. The nobleman prevailed upon one of his slaves, on the promise of his freedom and a reward, to consent to the experiment; by which the double flesh was united, and a piece of flesh was cut out of the slave's arm, which was so managed by a skillful surgeon as to serve for a natural nose. The slave being rewarded and set free, went to Napes, where he fell sick and died; at which instant gangrene appeared upon the nobleman's nose: upon which that part of the nose, which belonged to the dead man's arm was, by the advice of his physicians, cut off; and being encouraged by the above-mentioned experiment, he was prevailed upon to have his own arm wounded in like manner, and to apply it to the remainder of his nose, which he did; a new nose was cut out of it, which continued with him till death. See Sir Kenelm Digby's Discourse concerning Powder of Sympathy, 1660, p115.
Hudibras, Samuel Butler, Published in 1789 with extensive notes by Zachary Grey Part I Canto I
****
Treadway Russel Nash's footnote:
"Tallacotius was professor of physic and surgery at Bologna, where he was born, 1553. His treatise is well known. He says, the operation has been practiced by others before him with success. See a very humorous account of him, Tatler, No. 260. The design of Taliacotius has been improved into a method of holding correspondence at a great distance, by the sympathy of flesh transferred from one body to another. If two persons exchange a piece of fesh from the biceptital muscle of the arm, and circumscribe it with an alphabet; when the one pricks himself in A, the other is to have a sensation thereof in the same part, and by inspecting his arm, perceive what letter the other points to.
Our author likewise intended to ridicule Sir Kenelm Digby, who, in his Treatise on the sympathetic powder, mentions, but with caution, this method of engrafting noses. It has been observed, that the ingenuity of the ancients seems to have failed them on a similar occasion, since they were obliged to piece out the mutilated shoulder of Pelops with ivory.
In later days it has been a common practice with dentist, to draw the teeth of young chimney-sweepers, and fix them in the heads of other persons. There was a lady whose mouth was supplied in this manner. After some time the boy claimed the tooth, and went to a justice of peace for a warrant against the lady, who, he alleged, had stolen it.
The case would have puzzled Sir Hudibras.
Dr. Hunter mentions some ill effects of the practice. A person who gains a tooth, may soon after want a nose. The simile has been translated into Latin thus:
Sic adscitiaties nasos de clune torosi
Vectoris docta secuit Taliacotius arte:
Que postquam fato clunis compuatruit, ipsum
Una symmphaticum coepit tabescere rostrum
Hudibras, Samuel Butler, with Notes and a Literary Memoir, Rev. Treadway Russel Nash, D. D. D. Appleton & Company, New-York, 1854.
***
American Indians loved a good story and apparently were not beyond creating what was lacking in fact. John Lawson writing in his book, A New Voyage to Carolina, met the "King of the Santee Nation" and the chief "Doctor". The Doctor was "warmly and neatly clad with a Match-Coat, made of Turkies Feathers, which makes a pretty Shew, seeming as if it was a Garment of the deepest silk shag. This Doctor had the Misfortune to lose his Nose by the Pox, which Disease the Indians often get by the English Traders that use amongst them; not but the Natives of America have for many Ages (by their own Confession) been afflicted with a Distemper much like the Lues Venerea (syphilis), which hath all the Symptoms of the Pox, being different in this only; for I never could learn, that this Country-Distemper, or Yawes is begun or continu'd with a Gonorrhoea; yet is attended with nocturnal Pains in the Limbs , and commonly makes such a Progress as to vent Part of the Matter by Botches, and several Ulcers in the Body; and other Parts; oftentimes Death ensuing. I have known mercurial Ungents and Remidies work a Cure, following the same Methods as in the Pox; several white People, but chiefly the Criolo's losing their Palates and Noses by this devouring Vulture....
... our Doctor, who in the Time of his Affliction withdrew himself (with one that labour'd under the same Distemper) into the Woods. These two perfected their Cures by proper Vegitables, &c., of which they have Plenty, and are well acquainted with their specific Virture....
After these two had perform'd their Cures at no easier Rate than the Expence of both their Noses, coming again amongst their old Acquaintance so disfigur'd, the Indians admir'd to see them metamorphos'd after that manner; enquir'd of them where they had been all that Time, and what were become of their Noses? They made Answer, That they had been conversing with the white Man above (meaning God almighty) how they were very kindly entertain'd by the Great Being; he being much pleas'd with their Ways, and had promis'd to make their Capacities equal with the white People in making Guns, Ammunition, &c. in Retalliation of which, they had given him their Noses."
A New Voyage to Carolina, John Lawson, London, 1709 (Readex Microprint Corporation, 1966)
****
Fast forward to 2001 and find under the appealing title, "The Return of the Leech", a report about Rambo (not the Rambo of current fiction), William Rambo, that is. In 1995 or 1996, it being a bit unclear in the report, this retired electrical engineering professor had a series of operations to remove skin cancers which along the way did in his nose as well. So, as the story goes, his surgeon removed a flap of skin from Rambo's scalp and used it to reconstruct (or as they say, rebuild) a nose. Here's where the leeches enter the story. A common complication of this type surgery is insufficient drainage of blood from the tissue. It's fairly easy to connect the supplying arterial system, but not so the veins. About twenty leaches drained the pent-up blood and saved Rambo's new nose.
Of all this, the retired engineer said, "I got a fine new nose." You must wonder if now he has the usual problem of nasal hair, or perhaps it grows more abundantly, top-side instead?
Today's Chemist at Work, October 2001, pp 47.
Perhaps Woody Allen wasn't far off base when in the movie, Sleeper, they attempted to clone a new body from the nose (the only part remaining) of the country's assassinated dictator, who had been blown to bits. I seem to recall various bits (no pun intended) of the film where the nose is run over by a steam roller.
Sleeper, Rollins-Joffe Production/United Artist, Director - Woody Allen, 1973
... the well fed beak of Bardolph, glowing with carbuncles, and hissing hot with the fumes of sack; or Cromwell's proboscis, whose warty rubicundity was compared by Butler (Hudibras) and other lampooners to a meteor, "perplexing monarchs with fear of change."
In his "bundle of egotisms" bound up together, William Mathews had this (and much more) to say about Noses.
The Great Conversers, S. C. Griggs, 1874, pp 257.
It's interesting that some see the unconscious placement of one's finger alongside his or her nose as being a signal that the person either is lying or doesn't believe you.
Perhaps this comes from the deception used by gamblers and such who used it as a signal to one another against the unsuspecting.
Tad Tuleja in The Cat's Pajamas, Fawcett Columbine, New York, 1988, pp 106.
Nose. N. The extreme outpost of the face. From the circumstance that great conquerors have great noses, Getius, whose writing antedate the age of humor, calls the nose the organ of quell. It has been observed that one's nose is never so happy as when thrust into the affairs of another, form which some physiologist have drawn the inference that the nose is devoid of the sense of smell.
The Devil's Dictionary. Ambrose Bierce, Hill and Wang, New York, 1961, pp127
And since we began with a bit of poetry, so shall we end.
You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose,
but you can't pick your friend's nose.
Anon
Nose is not toes.
Doctor Suis.
How very odd that poets should suppose
There is no poetry about a nose,
When plain as a man's nose upon his face,
A noseless face would lack poetic grace!
The Great Conversers, William Mathews, S. C. Griggs, 1874, pp 257.
"Neath starry eyes, o'er ruby lips it grows, -
Beauty in its form, - and music in its blows!
There's a man with a Nose,
And wherever he goes
The people run from him and shot:
"No cotton have we
For our ears if so be
He blow that interminous snout!"
So the lawyers applied
For injunction. "Denied,"
Said the Judge: "the defendant prefixion,
Whate'er it portend,
Appears to transcend
The bounds of this court's jurisdiction."
Arpad Singiny in The Devil's Dictionary. Ambrose Bierce, Hill and Wang, New York, 1961, pp127
A nose by any other name is still a nose.
S. J. Mahtrow
******
* Nostoriety - To write about the nose, i.e., nost (abbrev. nostril), combined with - riety (var. write). Or perhaps a variety of quackery, i.e., nost (abbrev. nostrum, a quack medicine of one's own making), combined with - riety (var. of variety)
****
Joe Wortham's Home Page , About Joe Wortham , Directory
Questions? Comments? [email protected]