306 primary schools … Ignorantine friars: Primary schools were created in France in 1833 by François Guizot, minister of education under Louis-Philippe; the Ignorantines (frères ignorantins) were brethren of the Christian Schools, a religious fraternity founded in 1680 that offered a free education especially to children of the poor. Rouen was their headquarters from 1705 to 1770. They continue to thrive as an international institution.
306 Saint Bartholomew’s Day: The reference is to the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre; see note to p. 32.
306 cho-ca and revalentia: Health foods, the first made from chocolate, which became very popular and widespread by the end of the nineteenth century.
307 Pulvermacher hydroelectric belts: These first appeared in England in 1850 or before; they consisted of linked metal plates that were supposed to improve the health through the application of mild electric shocks to the body, but they were eventually dismissed by the medical establishment as quackery.
307 Scythian: The Scythians, a nomadic people who flourished between the fourth and eighth centuries B.C., inhabited mainly the area between the Danube and the Don rivers. They wore belted tunics often adorned with gold plaques.
307 a Magian priest: A member of the priestly class among the ancient Medes and Persians.
307 Temple of Vesta: Vesta was the Roman goddess of the hearth; her public cult maintained a temple in which her priestesses, the vestal virgins, tended a fire that was never allowed to go out.
307 Sta viator … amabilem conjugem calcas: The Latin text reads, “Stay, traveler … you tread on a lovable [or lovely] spouse.” Homais evidently remembered the first words of an epitaph he may have come across in his reading of Voltaire, who discusses it: “Sta, viator, heroem calcas”—“Stay, traveler, you tread on a hero’s dust.”
310 cantharis beetles: See note to p. 287 on cantharides. This golden-green beetle is also known as a Spanish fly.
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
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