The stalks are jointed like corn, with the like leaves on them, and a large spiked head, with a long husk in them, and hard rough seed in them.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

Then as a licensed spy, whom nothing can Silence or hurt, he libels the great man; Swears every place entailed for years to come, In sure succession to the day of doom; He names the price for every office paid, And says our wars thrive ill, because delayed; Nay hints, ’tis by connivance of the Court, That Spain robs on, and Dunkirk’s still a port.
— from An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires by Alexander Pope

The day after this frolic, he had a very severe fit of the ague, and looked so ill that I really entertained fears for his life.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

" "Wouldn't you have a master for your castle in the air?" asked Laurie slyly.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Nothing on the horizon, except near four o'clock in the afternoon a long steamer to the west, running on our opposite tack.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

TO PLAY SAFE PUT THE ROAST IN A NETTING, BAG OR LITTLE BASKET AND CAREFULLY TIE TOGETHER, ADD A LITTLE SALT TO THE BOILING GRAVY.
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius

III He had, doubtless from some story-book, pictured Paul's trial as a long struggle, with bitter arguments, a taut crowd, and sudden and overwhelming new testimony.
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

Believe me, your creditors with a more fervent devotion will beseech Almighty God to prolong your life, they being of nothing more afraid than that you should die; for that they are more concerned for the sleeve than the arm, and love silver better than their own lives.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

Just as they were in the very height of their amusement, a large sledge passed by: it was painted quite white, and there was someone in it wrapped up in a rough white mantle of fur, with a rough white fur cap on his head.
— from Andersen's Fairy Tales by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

This saves valuable time by directing the examination into the channels indicated, thus avoiding a lengthy series [pg 962] of experiments.
— from The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand by Ray Vaughn Pierce

This signal may be communicated from one camp to another, so as to alarm a large section of the country in remarkably quick time.
— from The Book of Camp-Lore and Woodcraft by Daniel Carter Beard

The nearer she came the fairer seemed the tent, and at last she rowed to the shore and grounded her little boat on the golden sand, and stepped out daintily and came up to the tent.
— from Old Peter's Russian Tales by Arthur Ransome

The diagnosis may be made by introducing the index finger in the rectum and palpating the anterior and lateral surfaces of the coccyx, and by moving the bone between the finger in the rectum and the thumb placed in the crease of the nates.
— from A Text-book of Diseases of Women by Charles B. (Charles Bingham) Penrose

Berlin laid under Contribution by the Austrians; and Leipsic subjected to military Execution by the Prussians.....
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II. by T. (Tobias) Smollett

The bridge did not break down; and the county commissioners, for whom the work was done, were satisfied that it was "abundantly safe for all practical uses," accepted it, paid for it; and in less than ten years it broke down under a single team and a little snow, weighing in all not over one-tenth part of the load the bridge was warranted to carry, and not over one-half the load with which it had been previously tested.
— from Bridge Disasters in America: The Cause and the Remedy by George L. (George Leonard) Vose

Mr. Rives made various criticisms, and Morse took these up in turn, and after long study overcame each one, so that by the end of the voyage he felt that he had worked out a practical method of making the electric current send and receive messages.
— from Historic Inventions by Rupert Sargent Holland

She pulled the little girl up several times, and at last Sibyl subsided in her seat, and looked out straight before her.
— from Daddy's Girl by L. T. Meade