Thirty thousand of the vanquished enemy laid down their arms at his feet, and filed off bare-headed and disarmed before him.
— from The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia by Voltaire

In therapeutics he very early laid down the fundamental maxim that every disease must be combated by contrary remedies, justifying this by every species of argument, amounting to this: that every disease must be combated by its contrary because all that cures a disease is contrary to it.
— from An Epitome of the History of Medicine by Roswell Park

"For once, we won't cream it," said E. Billie Jackson, dryly, as Van Emmon laid down the can-opener.
— from The Lord of Death and the Queen of Life by Homer Eon Flint

AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY VIVISECTOR English literature during the eighteenth century presents no more distinguished name than that of Dr. Samuel Johnson, the lexicographer and essayist.
— from An Ethical Problem Or, Sidelights upon Scientific Experimentation on Man and Animals by Albert Leffingwell

that the kidneys are fresh, and cut them open very evenly, lengthwise, down to the root, for should one half be thicker than the other, one would be underdone whilst the other would be dried, but do not separate them; skin them, and pass a skewer under the white part of each half to keep them flat, and broil over a nice clear fire, placing the inside downwards; turn them when done enough on one side, and cook them on the other.
— from The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton

Axillary membrane absent; forearms moderately slender, having indistinct tuberculate fold on ventrolateral edge, lacking distinct transverse fold on wrist; fingers short; length of fingers from shortest to longest, 1-4-2-3, fourth nearly as long as second; discs small, about half again as wide as digits; subarticular tubercules large, round, flattened, distal ones on third and fourth fingers bifid; supernumerary tubercles large, round, present only on proximal segments; prepollex barely enlarged, lacking nuptial excrecence.
— from Descriptions of New Hylid Frogs From Mexico and Central America by William Edward Duellman

How they might all grow up into lovely trees—and pinks grow like almond blossom, and violets everywhere like daisies, tulips climb about like Virginian creeper—and not stand staring just as if they’d been just stuck into the ground.—Fancy a house all in a mantle of tulips.—And how many new shapes they might invent!...
— from Kate Greenaway by M. H. (Marion Harry) Spielmann