Various

“ Why all the mammalia (for, be it observed, these diseases are not confined to the human race) are subject to these accidents, or why the animal economy should be subject to such a turmoil at all, or, being so subject, why the susceptibility to the recurrence of the morbid action should exist, or be revived in some and not in others; and why in the majority of persons it should be extinguished at once and for ever, remain amongst the arcana of Nature, to which, as yet, the physiology of all the Hunters, and the animal chemistry of all the Liebigs, give no solution. ”

“ But the original words for humble are iosal and iriosal, cognate with the Irish iosal and iriseal, and the Cymric isel; and the olden and more established words for the earth are, both in Gaelic and Irish, talamh and lar, cognate with the Cymric llawr.
All these facts lead to a reasonable suspicion that uim, umhal, and umhailteas (an evident naturalisation of a Latin word) are all derived from Latin at a comparatively recent date, as certainly as umile, humilde, ’humble, and ‘humble are, and in the same Christian sense. ”

“ It has long been well known among sailors that rats have the sense to change their quarters when a vessel becomes cranky; whence I believe arises the epithet "rat," which is sometimes scurrilously applied to a politic man who removes to the opposition benches when he perceives symptoms of dissolution in the ministry. The snake, in the simple narrative above quoted, was evidently guided by some such prudential motive when he quitted the stomach of the dying sailor, which could not continue for any great length of time to afford protection and support to the cunning reptile. ”

“ If a very few sheets are to be manipulated upon, then, for economy, the glass rod is preferable; but if several, the floating has the advantage, because it ensures the most even application. I sent you a short paragraph (Vol. ix., p. 32.) showing how we may be deceived in water-marks upon paper; and when we are supposing ourselves to be using a paper of a particular date, in fact we are not doing so.
I would also caution your photographic correspondents from being deceived in the quality of a paper by the exceeding high gloss which is given it by extra hot-pressing. ”

“ Existe-t-il une preuve plus forte de l'amour de l'homme pour le merveilleux, que l'accueil fait de nos jours aux tables tournantes? Nous ne le pensons pas. Plus d'un esprit fort, qui accuse ses pères de crédulité en rejetant leurs traditions religieuses contemporains de Louis XIV., ont repoussé comme impossible un traité de chimère. ”

“ A bad-coloured paper is of no importance; it is the extraneous substances in the paper itself which do the mischief.
Ed.
A Practical Photographic Query.—I have never had a practical lesson on photography. I have worked it out as far as I could myself, and I have derived much information in reading the pages of "N. & Q.," so that now I consider myself (although we are all apt to flatter ourselves) an average good manipulator. Independently of the information you have afforded me, I have read all the works upon photography which I could procure ”

“ I throw out this theory for the consideration of others, having myself neither leisure nor opportunity for pushing the subject any farther; but still I think that a distinguished statesman and novelist, who amused the world some years ago by endeavouring to trace most of the eminent men of modern times to a Jewish origin, might, with at least as much reason, claim most of the glories of ancient Greece for his favourite people. ”

“ I have long been convinced that the Passionate Pilgrim was published surreptitiously; and although it bears Shakspeare's name, the sonnets and ballads of which it is composed were several of them taken from his dramas, and added to by selections from the poems of his cotemporaries, Raleigh, Marlow, and others; that it was a bookseller's job, made up for sale by the publisher, W. Jaggard.
No one can believe that Shakspeare would have been guilty of such a gross plagiarism. Griffin's Fidessa bears date 1596: the first known edition of the Passionate Pilgrim was printed for W. Jaggard, 1599. ”

“ How the reptile got into his stomach is a mystery which the newspaper writer has attempted to clear up, but he has not attempted to explain how the reptile managed to live during many months in so unusual a habitation as a man's stomach. ”

“ Ce principe concerne le développement en nous d'une action musculaire qui n'est pas le produit d'une volonté, mais le résultat d'une pensée qui se porte sur un phénomène du monde extérieur sans préoccupation de l'action musculaire indispensable à la manifestation du phénomène. ”

“ Having formerly written much on the occult sciences and being a veteran in experimental science, M. Chevreul was generally deemed better qualified than most men living to throw light on the intervention of a principle whose influence he thinks he has proved by his own proper experience. ”

“ Neots has been induced to manufacture a batch expressly for photography; but we regret to say that, although it is admirably adapted for albumenizing and printing positives, it is not favourable for iodizing, less so than his original make for ordinary purposes. All manufacturers, in order to please the eye, use bleaching materials, which deteriorate the paper chemically. They should be thoroughly impressed with the truth, that colour is of little consequence. ”

“ GRIFFIN'S "FIDESSA," AND SHAKSPEARE'S "PASSIONATE PILGRIM."
I am the fortunate possessor of a thin volume, entitled Fidessa, a Collection of Sonnets, by B. Griffin, reprinted 1811, from the edition of 1596, at the Chiswick Press; I presume, by the monogram at the end, by Mr. S. W. Singer. ”

“ Having thus ventured to defend the use of legend by your correspondent (Vol. v., p. 196.) , I submit to the illuminating power of your pages the following novel use of a word I have met with in the course of reading this morning, and shall be gratified if some of your correspondents (better Grecians than myself) can turn their critical bull's-eye on it with equal advantage to its employer.
In the poems of Bishop Corbet, edited by Octavius Gilchrist, F.S.A., 4th edition, 1807, an editorial note at p. 195. ”

“ In a grant I have also now before me of Queen Elizabeth—
"Decimas, calchanti, liquor, mineral, metal," &c.
are given to the grantee for a term of twenty-one years: probably your readers can also enlighten my ignorance of the term calchanti; the other words are obvious. If any authorities are to be met with, probably in the answers to these queries your correspondents will have the goodness to cite them. ”

“ It was not likely that the Creator should have left the methodical order of his work incomplete. A few patient observers agreed, therefore, to divide amongst themselves that part of the heavens which a planet revolving at the vacant distance might be expected to traverse; and that each should keep up a continuous examination of the portion assigned to him. And the result was the discovery by Piazzi, in 1801, of a planet revolving at the expected solar distance, but so minute that the elder Herschel computed its diameter to be no more than 163 miles. ”

“ NON-RECURRING DISEASES. (Vol. viii., p. 516.)
To give a full and satisfactory answer to the questions here proposed would involve so much professional and physiological detail, as would be unsuited to the character of such a publication as "N. & Q." I will therefore content myself with short categorical replies, agreeable to the present state of our knowledge of these mysteries of the animal economy. It is true as a general rule that the infectious diseases, particularly the exanthemata, or those attended by eruption—the measles for example—occur but once. ”

“ Would your correspondents call it the ’Ebrew language, because a Gael calls it, as he must do, Eabrach?
E. C. H.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.
The Calotype Process: curling up of Paper.—I am happy in having the opportunity of replying to your correspondent C. E. F. (Vol. ix., p. 16.) , because, with himself, I have found great annoyance from the curling up of some specimens of paper. ”

“ Wheels so constructed I have seen in the west of England, in Ireland, and in France. A recent traveller in Moldo-Wallachia relates that the people of the country go from place to place mounted on horses, buffaloes, or oxen; but among the Boyards it is "fashionable" to make use of a vehicle which holds a position in the scale of conveyances a little above a wheelbarrow and little below a dung-cart. It is poised on four wheels of solid wood of two feet diameter, which are more or less rounded by means of an axe. ”

“ How the reptile got into his stomach is a mystery. It is supposed that the deceased must have swallowed the reptile when it was young, drinking water when the Hastings was out in India, as the ship laid for some time at Trincomalee, and close to a small island called Snake Island. The crew used very often to find snakes on board. ”

“ Testimonials from the best Photographers and principal scientific men of the day, warrant the assertion, that hitherto no preparation has been discovered which produces uniformly such perfect pictures, combined with the greatest rapidity of action. ”

“ Turner's Paper.—There is great difficulty in procuring good paper of Turner's make; he having lately undertaken a contract for Government in making paper for the new stamps, the manufacture of paper for photographic purposes has been to him of little importance. In fact, this observation, of the little importance of photographic compared to other papers, applies to all our great paper-makers, who have it in their power to make a suitable article. ”

“ TABLE-TURNING. (Vol. viii., pp. 57. 398.)
One of the most distinguished men of science in France, M. Chevreul, the editor (late or present) of the Annales de Chimie, &c., has commenced a series of articles in the Journal des Savants on the subject of the divining-rod, the exploring pendulum, table-turning, &c., his intention being to investigate scientifically the phenomena presented in these instances. ”

“ The omission of an aspirate in the Gaelic word is then easily accounted for, without supposing it not to exist in other languages, and for this very simple reason, that no Gaelic word commences with h. There are some Celtic roots undoubtedly in the Latin language. It would be difficult, for example, to derive mœnia, munire, gladius, vir, and virago from any other origin, but much the larger number of words, in which the two languages resemble each other, are either adoptions from the Latin or derivatives from one common source, e. ”

“ A vehicle used in the cultivation of the land on the slopes of the skirts of Dartmoor in Devonshire, has three wheels of solid wood; it resembles a huge wheelbarrow, with two wheels behind, and one in front of it, and has two long handles like the handles of a plough, projecting behind for the purpose of guiding it. ”

“ Lastly, they are printed in a good plain type, and on a firm, fine paper, capable of receiving writing inks, for notes, and at the same time they are supplied at moderate prices.
It is hoped that the advantages which the "OXFORD POCKET CLASSICS" possess over other Series will not fail to increase the circulation which they have already attained in both our public and private Schools, as also in our Universities. ”

“ For instance, in the volume for 1854, which has just been issued, we find, among many other improvements, that, at a very considerable cost, the attempt made in 1852 to ascertain and record the birthplace of every person who is the possessor, or the next heir, of any title of honour, has been renewed and extended with such success, that many hundred additional birthplaces are now recorded ”

“ She goes on triumphantly, and is very entertaining. Her sister Pilkington is not so fortunate. She has squandered away the money she gained by her first volume, and cannot print her second. But from you, I hope to hear of books of another sort. A thin quarto named Louthiana is most delicately printed, and the cuts admirably engraved: and yet we think the County of Louth the most devoid of Antiquities of any County in Ireland. The County of Corke is, I believe, in the press; and I am told it will be well executed. I have seen the County of Waterford, and approve of it very much. ”

“ The letter, preserved by Josephus, of Areus, king of Sparta, to the high-priest of the Jews, claiming a common descent with the latter from Abraham, and proposing an alliance. It is difficult to explain this claim on any other supposition than that Areus had heard of the tradition mentioned by Diodorus, and, as he and his people traced their descent from Danaus through Hercules, they consequently regarded themselves as sprung from a common stock with the Hebrews. ”

“ I have been accustomed to teach my boys that legend (à lego, to read) is not strictly to be confined to the ordinary translation of its derivative, since the Latin admits of several readings, and among them, by the usage of Plautus, to hearken; whence our English substantive takes equal license to admit of a relation = a narrative, viz. ”

“ EMBLEMATIC MEANINGS OF PRECIOUS STONES (Vol. viii., p. 539) .—PLANETS OF THE
MONTHS SYMBOLISED BY PRECIOUS STONES (Vol. iv., pp. 23. 164.) .
The Poles have a fanciful belief that each month of the year is under the influence of a precious stone, which influence has a corresponding effect on the destiny of a person born during the respective month. Consequently, it is customary, among friends and lovers, on birth-days, to make reciprocal presents of trinkets ornamented with the natal stones. ”

“ But I hope he will agree with me, that if there has been a disruption of a planetary world, it cannot have arisen from any mistake or deficiency in the Creator's work or foresight, but should be respectfully regarded as the result of some moral cause. ”