The penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, issue…
"The penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, issue…" is a general-interest illustrated periodical issue written in the early 19th century. It offers accessible, educational essays aimed at broad audiences, touching on antiquities, natural history, science and weather lore, brief biographies, social history, and notable historical incidents. The issue ranges widely: it opens with a vivid tour of India’s rock-cut sanctuaries, especially the cave-temple of Elephanta, its pillars,
Siva sculptures, and comparisons to Ellora. A sustained essay on “The Weather” debunks almanac prophecies, explains practical sky and animal signs (with insights from Davy’s Salmonia), and includes Dr. Jenner’s “Signs of Rain.” A British Museum article presents the musk-ox’s Arctic adaptations and the giraffe’s form and habits. “The Week” offers brief lives of Gellert and Flaxman. A social-history piece reads colonial Virginia through its laws—tobacco as currency, wolf bounties, pillories and ducking-stools, franchise rules, and attempts to force silk culture—underscoring how statutes reveal societal progress. The tragic sinking of the Royal George at Spithead is retold, with Kempenfeldt’s loss and Cowper’s elegy. Short notes close the issue on horse behavior, Bedouin foal care, the 1783 Calabria earthquakes, aging sheep by teeth, and a shy Cavendish anecdote. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
