Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/329

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ii s. VIIL OCT. 25, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


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of the six codices comprising Sweden- borg's ' Index Biblicus ' ; but in 1907 the work was transferred to Mr. Stroh, and has been completed by him. This work also in an edition of 110 copies, 3 vols., folio is about to be published. The first result of the Anglo-American action initiated at the meeting of 11 July, 1910, has been the completion of a facsimile of the MS. ' Ad- versaria ' yet again in an edition of 110 copies, in 3 vols., folio a set of this and of the ' Index Biblicus ' being exhibited at the annual meeting of the Swedenborg Society noted above.

A beginning has already been made upon the phototyping of the MS. first draft ^ of

  • Arcana Ccelestia.' The MS. of the second

draft that used in the printing of the work has not been preserve^.

Nor have Swedenborg's fellow-countrymen neglected him. In 1901 Dr. Max *Neu- burger, Professor of the History of Medicine in the University of Vienna whose ' History of Medicine ' is published in English by the Clarendon Press laid before the meeting of German Investigators and Physicians at Hamburg his ' Swedenborg's Beziehungen zur Gehirnphysiologie,' in which he empha- sized, as Dr. R. L. Tafel had done in 1882, Swedenborg's wonderful discoveries and intuitions concerning the functions of the brain. Soon after this Dr. Neuburger ap- proached the Swedish Legation at Vienna, expressing his regrets " dass eine in Stock- holm liegende umfangreiche Handschrift uber das Gehirn noch nicht veroffentlicht worden ist." On this basis there came from the Legation a report dated 13 March, 1902, to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Stock- holm, who in due course transmitted it to Prof. Dr. Gustaf Retzius, of the Royal Academy of Sciences, the home of the Swedenborg MSS.

A cursory examination by Prof. Retzius of the manuscripts which treat of the brain and nervous system disclosed the fact that a sufficiently thorough examination would Like more time and work than he could devote to them, and for the nonce the task was postponed. In August of the same year (1902) Prof. Retzius fortunately met Mr. Stroh, and the results have been important and far-reaching. At the ordinary meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences in tin- following "I >('. -mber, a committee, consisting of Profs! C. Loven, A. G. Nathorst, S. E. Henschen, and S. Arrhonius, with Mr. Stroh, was rhsnvi'd "to examine all the manuscripts of Swedenborg, and present a report thereon


to the Academy, stating whether and to* what extent they ought to be published."' The following April saw a favourable report from the Committee, and the printing of a selected number of volumes was decided upon. The plan was to print some three or four volumes, but it developed later into a decision that Swedenborg's physical philo- sophy of 1710-34 shall be represented by seven volumes, and his anatomical and physiological works by three. Of these ' Opera qusedam aut Inedita aut Obsoleta.' tomi i., ii., iii., have already appeared under the general editorship of Mr. Stroh, with a preface by Prof. Retzius (who also defrayed the cost of publishing the three volumes), and introductory matter by Profs. Nathorst and Arrhenius. Arrangements, literary and financial, have been made for the due com- pletion of this publishing scheme. Mr.. Stroh's labours, like those of his predecessors,, the Drs. Tafel, include the collection of documents concerning Swedenborg, and these are to see the light in a periodical publication at irregular intervals, entitled The Swedenborg Archives, of which the first- number was laid upon the table at No. 1. Bloomsbury Street, on June 24.

Following upon a report that the mortal remains of Swedenborg would probably be- removed from their resting-place in the Swedish Church, Prince's Square, Rat cliff e- Highway, London, to a new building in the West - End, a number of Swedish ad- mirers proposed the reinterment of his body in his native land. Mr. Stroh having been informed of these plans by prominent members of the New Church at Stockholm, he brought the matter to the attention of Prof. Gustaf Retzius. In January, 1907. at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, its Swedenborg Committee introduced the sub- ject, with the result that, the Swedish and English Governments having given their consent, the remains as all the world knows were brought back in the following' yonr (1908) to Sweden in the war vessel Fylgia, and deposited in the Bjelka Chapel in the Cathedral of Upsala. In April of the following year the Swedish Parliament appropriated 10,000 kroner for the pro- vision of a suitable sarcophagus, which wa^ unveiled on 19 Nov., 1910, in the presence of the King of Sweden, and a congregation which completely filled the cathedral. A deputation from the Swedenborg Society, accompanied by Mr. Stroh as a representative of America, was awarded a special " coign of vantage."