Various

“ Lamech, therefore, is an appropriate designation for a man known to prowl about for plunder and murder, and whose eye, whether taking aim or not, would give a sudden and furtive glance.
The word lamed signifies, in Hebrew, teaching; the word Talmud is from the same root. It is the same in Syriac and Chaldee. The original significant of these three languages is to be found in the Arabic Lamada: "Se submisit alicui; humiliter se gessit erga aliquem." ”

“ Smock Marriages (Vol. vii., p. 191.) .—According to Scotch law, the marriage of the father and mother legitimises all children previously born, however old they may be. This is called legitimisation per subsequens matrimonium, and is not unfrequently taken advantage of by elderly gentlemen, who, after having passed the heyday of youth, wish to give their children a position, and a legal right to inherit their property. Like the rule as to marriage above explained, it is derived from the Roman or civil law. ”

“ A good bath so made should require about six ounces of solution of nitrate of silver to take a picture eight inches square. Your observations in a former Number, respecting the uncertainty of gutta percha, I have found to be perfectly true. Samples of gutta percha constantly vary; and one may contain impurities acted upon by the chemicals, which another does not. A small rim formed by sealing-wax dissolved in spirits of wine, and applied twice or thrice along the upper edge of the bath, is sufficient to protect the prepared glass from adhering to the front of the bath when in use. ”

“ Do the Sun's Rays put out the Fire (Vol. vii., p. 285.) .—It is known that solar light contains three distinct kinds of rays, which, when decomposed by a prism, form as many spectra, varying in properties as well as in position, viz. luminous, heating or calorific, and chemical or actinic rays.
The greater part of the rays of heat are even less refrangible than the least refrangible rays of light, while the chemical rays are more refrangible than either. ”

“ P.S.—Although I have given several entries of the customary payments to Saham, they are merely given to show the different modes of making those entries, and not in expectation of your giving all of them, unless you think any further light can be given on the subject. As before, perhaps the court books of the manor of Saham would assist.
It was an annual custom for Shipdham people to "Drive the common" (as it was called) once a year, in a night of an uncertain time, when all the cattle, &c. found within the limits or boundary of Shipdham were impounded in a farm-yard adjoining. ”

“ Glass Baths.—Several of your correspondents finding a difficulty in making glass baths, I beg to communicate the way in which they may be very easily manufactured. Having obtained two pieces of patent plate glass, grind the edges, which may readily be done by a scythe sand-stone, where other contrivances are not handy. Cut for the bottom of the bath a slip of the same glass three-quarters of an inch in breadth; and for the sides, from ordinary window-glass, four wedges, being about three-fifths of an inch at one end, tapering down to the thickness of the piece of plate glass at the bottom. ”

“ It would be difficult to find a book better calculated to prove the good service which the Camden Society is rendering to historical literature, than the one which has just been circulated among its members. ”

“ The relative quantities of these several kinds of rays in sun-light varies with the time of day, the season, and the latitude of any spot. In general, where the luminous and heating rays are most abundant, the proportion of chemical rays is least; and, in fact, the two seem antagonistic to each other. Thus, near the equator, the luminous and calorific rays being most powerful, the chemical are feeble, as is shown by the length of time required for the production of photographic pictures. ”

“ More true knowledge of the spirit of an age, more real acquaintance with the feelings and actual circumstances of a people, may be gleaned from a delineation of the affairs of a single family, than from studied historical composition. ”

“ If several pieces are cut off promiscuously, four may be selected which have exactly the same angle, so as to form an even support to the sides. The glass being perfectly clean, dry, and as warm as can be conveniently held by the hand, fix the bottom and then the sides by means of the very best sealing-wax, which will perfectly adhere to the glass. ”

“ Crossley's remarks, to say, that from the accidental resemblance of the Hebrew and Celtic words Lamech and Lamaich, no philological argument can be drawn of identical meaning, any more than from the fact that the words Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazar, or Belteshassar [2] , are significant in Russian {433}and Sclavonian, as well as in Chaldee. Lamache in Arabic means (see Freytag) "levi intuitu et furtim adspicere aliquem;" also to shine, as lightning, or a star. ”

“ The flaking of the collodion would indicate an excess of iodide, and is often cured by the addition of about twenty drops of alcohol to an ounce of collodion. The feathery appearance is difficult to comprehend, without seeing a specimen. If you are using glass which has been previously used, the most minute remains of iron would cause a discoloration. ”

“ A promise of marriage, followed by copula, also constitutes a marriage. But it would be out of place here to enter into all the arcana of the Scotch law of marriage: suffice it to say, that it prevails equally at John o' Groat's House and Aberdeen, as in the Canongate or at Gretna Green. A regular marriage requires certain formalities, such as the publication of banns, &c. An irregular one is equally good in law, and may be contracted in various ways, as above explained. ”

“ Archbishop King.—The well-known William King, Archbishop of Dublin, was interred in the graveyard of the parish of St. Mary, Donnybrook, near Dublin, as appears from the following entry in the Register of Burials: "Buried, Archbishop King, May 10th, 1729." There is no stone to mark his grave. I would be glad to know whether there is any monument elsewhere,
I would likewise be glad to know whether there is any good engraving of the archbishop in existence. ”

“ There is a very amusing account of conversations with him at Oxford, in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxv. p. 78., in which, before a large company of ladies and gentlemen who were curious as to the customs of Formosa, he gravely defended the practice which he said existed in that country, of cutting off the heads of their wives and eating them, in case of misconduct. "I think it is no sin," continued he, "to eat human flesh, but I must own it is a little unmannerly." He admitted that he once ate part of a black; but they being always kept to hard work, their flesh was tough and unsavoury. ”

“ Muriatic acid is the most effectual remedy for cleaning glass so used. It may be procured at 21⁄2d. per lb., and should be diluted with three parts of water.
An Amateur (Oxford) . We are not of opinion that Mr. Talbot could restrain any one from taking collodion portraits, as patentee of the Talbotype process. It is done in many parts of London daily without any permission.—See Times' Advertisements, &c.
C. E. F. We think you use too strong a solution of the ammonio-nitrate of silver: thirty grains to the ounce of water, and then redissolved with the strong liq. ”

“ Mr. Layard falls into the mistake of calling the basin inscriptions Hebrew, although Mr. Ellis, who had translated them, says expressly that the language is Chaldee (Nineveh and Babylon, p. 510.) , one of them only being Syriac (p. 521.) . Chaldee and Syriac, indeed, differ from each other as little as Chaucer's and Shakspeare's English, although the written characters are wholly distinct.
Davis, in his Celtic Researches, has done all that was possible, taking a very limited view, however, in fixing upon certain linguistic resemblances in some ancient tongues to the Celtic ”

“ But as his manner of expressing himself may lead some of your readers to imagine that he is explaining Cain, Lamech, Adah, Zillah, from acknowledged Hebrew meanings of any parts of those words, it may be as well to warn them that the Hebrew gives no support to any one of his interpretations. If fancy be ductile enough to agree with him in seeing a representation of a human arm holding a sling with a stone in it in the Hebrew letter called lamed, there would still be a broad hiatus between such a concession, and the conclusion he seems to wish the reader to draw from it, viz. ”

“ Again: "A peculiar interest," Mr. Collier says, "attaches to one of the pieces in John Dowland's First Book of Songs (p. 57.) , on account of the initials of 'W. S.' being appended to it, in a manuscript of the time preserved in the Hamburgh City Library. It is inserted in England's Helicon, 4to., 1600, as from Dowland's Book of Tablature, without any name or initials; and looking at the character and language of the piece, it is at least not impossible that it was the work of our great dramatist, to whom it has been assigned by some continental critics. ”

“ Campvere, Privileges of (Vol. vii., p. 262.) .—J. D. S. asks, "What were these privileges, and whence was the term Campvere derived?"
In Scotland there exists an ancient institution called "The Convention of Royal Burghs," which still meets annually in Edinburgh, under the fixed presidency of the Lord Provost of that city. It is a representative body, consisting of delegates elected by the town councils of the royal burghs (not boroughs) of Scotland; and their business is to attend to such public measures as may affect the general interests of their constituents. ”

“ Notices to Correspondents.
Owing to a necessity for going to press this week at an unusually early period, that the present Number might be included in the Monthly Part, we are compelled to omit replies to many Correspondents.
L. A. M. (Great Yarmouth) will find several Notes respecting the means of discovering the bodies of the drowned in our 4th Vol., pp. 148. 251. 297.
H. O. N. (Brighton) . In our own practice we have never obtained pictures with the agreeable colour which is produced by the iodide of silver, when iodide of ammonium has been used. ”

“ Trevor thus describes the bishop's dress in Convocation, which is the proper dress of the episcopate:
"The chimere is the Convocation habit of a doctor of divinity in Oxford, made of silk instead of cloth, as the rochet is an alb of lawn in place of linen, honoris causâ: the detaching the sleeves from the rochet, and sewing them to the upper garment instead, is obviously a contrivance of the robe-makers. Dr. Hody says that the scarlet robe worn by the bishops in the House of Lords is the doctor's gown at Cambridge ”

“ Truly Lamech, seventy and seven-fold."
The construction is more favourable to the belief that the man of line third is the same as the young man of the parallel clause, than that he had slain two; the word rendered hurt is properly a wheal, the effect of a severe strife or wound.
As to the etymologies of the names mentioned by Mr. Crossley, we gather from God's words that she called her first son Cain, an acquisition (the Latin peculium expresses it more exactly than any English word) , because she had gotten (literally acquired, or obtained possession of) a man. ”

“ It is precisely for a similar reason that the combustion of an ordinary fire, being strictly a chemical change, is retarded whenever the sun's heating and luminous rays are most powerful, as during bright {440}sunshine, and that observe our fires to burn more briskly in summer than winter ”

“ Selling a Wife.—What is the origin of the popular idea, that a man may legally dispose of his spouse by haltering her, and exposing her for sale in a public market? Some time ago the custom appears to have been very prevalent ”

“ Thoughts, hopes, and love return to me no more,
Till Cynthia shine as she hath done before."
J. M. G.
Worcester.
Mr. Collier's "Notes and Emendations:" Passage in "All's Well that Ends Well."—
"O you leaden messengers,
That ride upon the violent speed of fire,
Fly with false aim; move the still-peering air,
That sings with piercing, do not touch my lord!"
Such is the text of the first folio. Mr. Payne Collier, at p. 162. of his Notes and Emendations, informs us that the old corrector of his folio of 1632 reads volant for "violent," wound for "move," and still-piecing for "still-peering." ”

“ None shall bribe any saltpetre-man for the sparing or forbearing of any ground fit to be wrought for saltpetre," &c.
It would appear that the saltpetre-man abused his authority, and that the people suffered a good deal of annoyance from the manner in which this {434}absurd system was carried out; for two years afterwards we find that another proclamation was published by the King, notifying, "that the practice of making saltpetre in England by digging up the floors of dwelling-houses, &c. ”

“ A fine continues to be paid by Shipdham to Saham to this time; and although many entries are made of such payments in the early parish accounts, beginning A.D. 1511, yet in no instance is it said the reason or cause of these payments being annually made. The said payments are not always of the same amount; they are sometimes paid in money and sometimes in kind, as the following instances show.
The first entry I meet with is in 1511:
Payd the halffe mark at Saham. ”

“ In all these contracts it was stipulated {441}that the Scottish traders should enjoy certain privileges, which were considered of such importance that the crown appointed a conservator of them. The last of these staple contracts was made with Campvere in the year 1747; but soon afterwards the increasing prosperity of Scotland, and the participation of its burgesses in the foreign trade of England, rendered such partial arrangements useless, and the contracts and the privileges have long since been reckoned among the things that were. ”