It is opened, as at G H, by a screw below with a nob at the end of it.

This instrument is known among surgeons, having been invented to assist them in wrenching open the mouth as in the case of a locked jaw; but it had got into use in this trade.
[Illustration: Thumb screw] [Illustration: Speculum oris] On asking the seller of the instruments on what occasion it was used there, he replied that the slaves were frequently so sulky as to shut their mouths against all sustenance, and this with a determination to die; and that it was necessary their mouths should be forced open to throw in nutriment, that they who had purchased them might incur no loss by their death.
The town-talk of Liverpool was much of the same nature as that at Bristol on the subject of this trade.

Horrible facts concerning it were in everybody's mouth; but they were more numerous, as was likely to be the case where eighty vessels were employed from one port, and only eighteen from the other.

The people, too, at Liverpool seemed to be more hardened, or they related them with more coldness or less feeling.

This may be accounted for from the greater number of those facts, as just related, the mention of which, as it was of course more frequent, occasioned them to lose their power of exciting surprise.