Wonder of the world!! Fairburn's account of the mermaid, the most extraordinary animal in creation, half woman and half fish / [John Fairburn].

  • Fairburn, John, 1768 or 1769-1832
Date:
[1822?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Wonder of the world!! Fairburn's account of the mermaid, the most extraordinary animal in creation, half woman and half fish / [John Fairburn]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    public. Indeed, the exhibitant told us, that the receipts, on Friday, October 18th, amounted to twenty-jive pounds, for that day, at only one shilling per head. But the credulity and fondness of John Bull for raree-shows, which has been noted by our immortal bard, Shakspeare, in the Tempest, still hangs by him, and is so much ridiculed by foreigners of all countries, that I should be sorry to give them occasion for another grin at our expense. 1 only throw out a suggestion, therefore, that men of more skill in physiology, and of more influence, may fully investigate the business before we wholly resign our other senses to the evidence of our eyes. If the reality of the creature should, after accu¬ rate investigation, be fully substantiated, we can only say, that there is one more species added to the genus of loose jish; and, if the accounts above given, of its having been caught and kept alive, and even received some degree of education, be verified, the present, or some future generation, may hope to be gra¬ tified with an aquatic exhibition at our theatres, in which some of these animals, in a living state, may be pre¬ sented playing up their gambols, and frisking about in their native element. Nay, if the ancient accounts of their vocal abilities turn out to be accurate, the ocean may furnish us with a Catalani.oi a Braham, who may chaunt the wonders of the deep, and expose