Replies.

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN 1753.

(Vol. viii., p. 364.)

As no reply has yet been given to the Query of Inquirendo as to who was C. M., who described in the Scots Magazine, vol. xv. p. 73., as long since as 1753, the electric telegraph, and as the article itself is one of great interest in the history of an invention which is justly considered one of the greatest wonders of our own times, I send a transcript of it, by way of satisfying the natural curiosity of many readers who may not have an opportunity of consulting it in the magazine in which it originally appeared, and also because the doing so may stimulate farther inquiry, and lead to the discovery of its ingenious writer, C. M. of Renfrew.

"Renfrew, February 1, 1753.

"It is well known to all who are conversant in electrical experiments, that the electric power may be propagated along a small wire, from one place to another, without being sensibly abated by the length of its progress. Let, then, a set of wires, equal in number to the letters of the alphabet, be extended horizontally between too given places, parallel to one another, and each of them about an inch distant from that next to it. At every twenty yards' end let them be fixed in glass, or jeweller's cement, to some firm body, both to prevent them from touching the earth, or any other non-electric, and from breaking by their own gravity. Let the electric gun-barrel be placed at right angles with the extremities of the wires, and about an inch below them; also let the wires be fixed in a solid piece of glass at six inches from the end; and let that part of them which reaches from the glass to the machine have sufficient spring and stiffness to recover its situation after having been brought in contact with the barrel. Close by the supporting glass let a ball be suspended from every wire, and about a sixth or an eighth of an inch below the ball place the letters of an alphabet, marked on bits of paper, or any other substance that may be light enough to rise to the electrified ball, and at the same time let it be so contrived that each of them may reassume its proper place when dropt. All things constructed as above, and the minute previously fixed, I begin the conversation with my distant friend in this manner:—Having set the electrical machine a-going, as in ordinary experiments, suppose I am to pronounce the word sir; with a piece of glass, or any other electric per se, I strike the wire s, so as to bring it in contact with the barrel, then i, then r, all in the same way; and my correspondent, almost in the same instant, observes these several characters rise in order to the electrified balls at his end of the wires. Thus I spell away as long as I think fit, and my correspondent, for the sake of memory, writes the characters as they rise, and may join or read them afterwards as often as he inclines. Upon a signal given, or from desire, I stop the machine, and taking up the pen, in my turn I write down whatever my friend at the other end strikes out.

"If anybody should think this way tiresome, let him, instead of the balls, suspend a range of bells from the roof, equal in number to the letters of the alphabet, gradually decreasing in size from the bell a to z; and from the horizontal wires let there be another set reaching to the several bells; one, viz., from the horizontal wire a to the bell a, another from the horizontal wire b to the bell b, &c. Then let him who begins the discourse bring the wires in contact with the barrel, as before, and the electric spark, breaking on bells of different size, will inform his correspondent by the sound what wires have been touched. And thus, by some practice, they may come to understand the language of the chimes in whole words, without being put to the trouble of noting down every letter.

"The same thing may be otherwise effected. Let the balls be suspended over the characters, as before, but instead of bringing the ends of the horizontal wires in contact with the barrel, let a second set reach from the electrificator, so as to be in contact with the horizontal ones; and let it be so contrived, at the same time, that any of them may be removed from its corresponding horizontal by the slightest touch, and may bring itself again into contact when left at liberty. This may be done by the help of a small spring and slider, or twenty other methods which the least ingenuity will discover. In this way the characters will always adhere to the balls, excepting when any of the secondaries is removed from contact with its horizontal; and then the letter at the other end of the horizontal will immediately drop from its ball. But I mention this only by way of variety.

"Some may perhaps think that, although the electric fire has not been observed to diminish sensibly in its progress through any length of wire that has been tried hitherto; yet, as that has never exceeded some thirty or forty yards, it may be reasonably supposed, that in a far greater length it would be remarkably diminished, and probably would be entirely strained off in a few miles by the surrounding air. To prevent this objection, and save longer argument, lay over the wires, from one end to the other, with a thin coat of jeweller's cement. This may be done for a trifle of additional expense; and as it is an electric per se, will effectually secure any part of the fire from mixing with the atmosphere.

Surely among the numerous readers of "N. & Q." some one will be found to tell us who C. M. was.

J. Y.

FACTITIOUS PEDIGREES: DIXON OF BERSTON.

(Vol. ix., p. 221.)

The inquiry of Mr. R. W. Dixon is one that I feel should not remain unanswered; and a few circumstances that I can detail will be sufficient to prove that his brother Mr. J. H. Dixon only exercised a just discretion in rejecting the information offered by William Sidney Spence.

On 4th March, 1848 (a few months, therefore, earlier than the letter which has been quoted), a communication was forwarded to me by Mr. Spence so similar, as to warrant the supposition that a set form was kept on hand to be copied in different applications with such variations as each case might demand, though even then a discrepancy has crept in that would render the evidence suspicious.

The first paragraph is the same, except that Mr. Spence states he was engaged by the "widow of Sir John Cotgreave," instead of the "sister."

In the second the pedigree is said to be the "work of Randle Holme, 1672, from documents by William Camden," instead of the work of "the great Camden." Monsons, of course, are substituted instead of Dixons. Four generations from Sir John Monson temp. Edward III., instead of five generations from Ralph Dixon temp. Henry VI. And this Sir John is slain fighting under Lord Audley at the battle of Poictiers, 1356, as a counterpart to Ralph Dixon, slain at the battle of Wakefield, 1460.

The third paragraph is word for word the same, except that, to be consistent with the descents, four shields with sixteen quarterings are offered instead of five shields with twelve.

Lady Cotgreave is to vouch for the authenticity instead of Miss Cotgreave.

The quarterings promised in the next paragraph are only partially the same, and the conclusion merely differs in wording by the substitution of the names of "Sir John Monson" and "his mother Elinor, daughter and coheir of Sir John Sutton, de Sutton and Congleton," in place of "Ralph Dixon and his mother Maude, daughter and coheiress of Sir Ralph Fitz Hugh," &c.

I acknowledge that from the first I did not believe a word of this ingenious tale; in fact I was rather an unfortunate subject for Mr. Spence's purpose, having for years made the early history of my family my especial study; but having a friend resident at Birkenhead (a clergyman), I applied to him out of curiosity to find out something of my informant, who at least had shown some ingenuity. The answer was by no means in favour of Mr. Spence; and one fact was decidedly ascertained, that he neither lived nor was known in Priory Place, whence his letters were dated. I answered his letter, declining to give the remuneration of five pounds which he had asked; and on taxing him with the falsity of his residence, he said he had his letters left there for convenience.

Mr. Dixon must now himself judge of the credit to be placed on the informant. As for the information in my own case, it bore internal proofs of being worthless; and if such a pedigree as is described should exist, I feel assured it is not the work of Camden, but more probably of a cotemporary, of rather discreditable notoriety among genealogists, of the name of Dakyns.

Monson.

Gatton Park.

I can give no information on the Dixon family, but having some years ago received a letter from the same Mr. Spence, with an account of my own family, every word of which is not only entirely without authority, but a gross invention opposed to the facts, I thought Mr. Dixon might like to know that Mr. Spence founds the romance in question on a "Pedigree of Cotgreave de Hargrave, the work of the celebrated Randle Holme, anno 1672, from documents compiled by that learned antiquary William Camden, in the year 1598," evidently the same veracious authority with that mentioned in the letter to Mr. Dixon.

Ev. Ph. Shirley.

Eatington Park, Stratford-on-Avon.

The following note will, I think, satisfy your correspondent R. W. Dixon that the letter of William Sidney Spence which you inserted for him was an imposture, and that Mr. J. H. Dixon was not without reason in rejecting the information offered.

A friend of mine, assuming descent from "a good old" family of the same name, which he was unable to prove, received, about the same time as Mr. Dixon did, a communication from Mr. William Sidney Spence to precisely the same effect, and having no cautious brother to consult, readily took the bait, and paid some pounds for a specious pedigree, setting forth his "distinguished progenitors," with their armorial bearings, &c., purporting to be authenticated as a true copy of one in Miss Cotgreave's possession under that lady's own hand. The information so received being subsequently submitted to a genealogical friend, some doubt was excited of its genuineness in proving too much; and an inquiry, which I made through a correspondent in Cheshire, tending to confirm this suspicion, a reference was had to Miss Cotgreave herself, when it turned out that the whole was an ingenious fabrication. Mr. Spence was then dead, and my friend, whose name I do not mention, as the subject is rather a sore one, was obliged to be content with the practical experience he had bought.

The probability is, that whenever Mr. Spence read in Burke's Landed Gentry that Mr. A. or Mr. B., in preference to being considered as the founder of a new family, supposed himself, or wished to be supposed by others, to be descended from an old stock of the same name, he kindly offered to supply the desired information, and was ready to execute a pedigree to order.

G. A. C.

[The Editor has been informed by a person on whose accuracy he can rely, that a lady who received a letter from Mr. Spence offering certain information respecting his family taken from the Cotgreave pedigree, and who imprudently sent money for the same, got nothing but the most absurd rubbish in return, and having been induced to make inquiries into the subject, was fully satisfied that the whole thing was a fraud.]

LICENCES TO CRENELLATE.

(Vol. ix., p. 220.)

The subjoined list of names and places will supply Mr. Parker with the counties of all the places named in his inquiry, except two in which I suspect some error. If farther references to authorities are desired, they will be given with pleasure in reply to a private application, but would crowd your pages inconveniently.

1. Cokefield for Melton—Cokefeud for Moulton, Suffolk.

2. Grisnak for Molun—Query this?

3. Langeton for Newton in Makerfield.—L. for Newton Hall or Castle, the head of the Palatine Barony of Newton, in Lancashire.

4. Esselynton for Esselynton—E. in Northumberland.

5. Trussel for Cubleston—C. in Staffordshire.

6. De la Beche for De la Beche—De la Beche Castle. Aldworth, Berks.

7. The same for Beaumes—Beaumys Castle, Shinfield, Berks.

8. Cobham for Pringham—P. alias Sterborough Castle, Surrey.

9. The same for Orkesdene—O. in Kent.

10. "Burghchier" for Stanstede—Bourchier for Stansted, Essex.

11. Dalham for "Credonio"—"Fortalicium in loco de Crodonio." Printed Cal. Rot. Pat. p. 143.

12. Lengleys for Heyheved—Highhead Castle, in Cumberland.

13. Aeton for Chevelyngham—Heton for Chillingham, Northumberland.

Geo. O.

Sedbury Park, Chepstow.

There can, I think, be little doubt that Stansstede, in Mr. J. H. Parker's list, is Stanstead Hall, near Halstead in Essex. I have never seen Stanstead Hall, but about a month since I was in company with the late occupant; from whom I learned, in casual conversations, that it was an ancient house, with moat and fortifications. In addition to this I may state, that there are monuments in the old church (St. Andrew) of Halstead to some of the Bourchier family. These facts, taken together, seem to fix the locality with sufficient precision. One of the monuments just referred to is a brass, commemorating Sir Bartholomew Bourchier and his two wives; which, when I copied it in 1847, was under the flooring of a pew in the south aisle. He died May 8, 1409; and was previously the possessor of Stanstead Hall: so I learn from my own MS. Catalogue of brass rubbings in my collection, but I am not able to give any better reference to authenticate the statement.

W. Sparrow Simpson.

Heyheved, mentioned in Mr. Parker's list, is Highhead Castle in Cumberland. In the reign of Edward II. it was a peel house (pelum de Heyheved) possessed by Harcla, Earl of Carlisle. In modern times it became the property of a family named Richmond, one of whom erected the present house, after a plan by Inigo Jones. But he died before it was finished, leaving co-heirs, who quarrelled about the partition of the estate, and actually put a hedge through the centre of the house. Eventually one-half came into the hands of Lord Brougham, who is understood to have purchased the other, and will probably restore the whole.

K.

NEWSPAPER FOLK LORE.

(Vol. vi., pp. 221. 338. 466.; Vol. ix., pp. 29. 84.)

It may be instructive to collate the four stories recorded in the above references, and compare them with a case that was brought before Mr. Jardine at Bow Street Police Court; and which was reported in The Times for February 22, 1854. Let the following extract suffice: it is descriptive of the operations of extracting a worm from the body of one Harriet Gunton, by a female quack of the name of Jane Browning:

"I laid myself on the bed as she desired, and she told Mrs. Jones to hold my mouth to prevent my breathing. Mrs. Jones held me from behind, and nearly suffocated me. She kept me down, while the prisoner tried to get the worms out of my body with her hands. This lasted for about a quarter of an hour, and caused me dreadful pain. The prisoner told me that one of the worms had bit her finger, and slipped away again, and she could not get at it. She tried a second time, and said the worm had bit her again. I then begged her to leave off, if she could not succeed in getting it away; for I believed I should die under the operation. She tried a third time, and said she had broken two skins of it, which would prevent it getting up my body. ... She then put her hand under the clothes. I felt something touch me like a cloth, and she drew away her hand; throwing something into the pan, which sounded with a heavy splash. She said she had been trying at it all night, and had got it away at last."

Mr. Robert Biggs, the medical attendant, pronounced the "reptile" to be a fine conger eel, which he believed had often done duty in the same way.

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Birmingham.

It would be well if every popular error were hunted down, as your correspondents have done in the case of the snake-vomiting at Portsmouth. The public need to be told, that no animal can live in the alimentary canal but the parasites which belong to that part of the animal economy. Of these the Lumbricus intestinalis is the largest, and is discharged by children even of the size mentioned in the case of Jonathan Smith.

Two years ago I met with a curious illustration of the popular ignorance of that branch of natural history which treats of our own reptiles, as well as of the mode of growth of a popular marvel. During the hot weather of the summer before last, I was asked by a respectable farmer, if I had seen the "serpent" which was lately killed in an adjoining parish. "Serpent!" I replied; "I suppose you mean some overgrown common snake—perhaps a female full of eggs?" "Well, it might have been a snake at first, but it was grown into a serpent; and pursued a boy through the hedge, but was fortunately encountered and killed by the father."

It is a moot point, whether the parasites of animals are engendered or not within the body. In the case of the bots of horses, they are known to be the larvæ of a fly which deposits its eggs on the skin; from whence they are licked off, and conveyed into the animal's stomach, where they are hatched and prepared for their other metamorphoses.

I believe the only parasite taken in with water in tropical climates is the Guinea Worm; an animal which burrows under the skin of the arms or legs, and is extremely difficult of extraction, and often productive of great inconvenience. But whether the egg of this worm be taken into the stomach, and conveyed by the blood into the limbs, there to be hatched into life, or whether it enter through the pores of the skin, I believe is not determined.

The popular delusion respecting the swallowing of young snakes, and of their continuance in the stomach, is a very old one, and is still frequent. A medical friend of mine, not long since, was called on to treat a poor hysterical woman, who had exhausted the skill of many medical men (as she asserted) to rid her of "a snake or some such living creature, which she felt confident was and had been for a long time gnawing in her stomach." I suggested the expediency of working on the imagination of this poor hypochondriac, as was done in the well-known facetious story of the man who fancied he had swallowed a cobbler; and who was cured by the apparent discharge first of the awls and strap, then of the lapstone, and, finally, of Crispin himself.

M. (2)

FRENCH SEASON RHYMES AND WEATHER RHYMES.

(Vol. ix., p. 9.)

The following weather rules are taken from a work which is probably but little known to the generality of English readers. It is entitled:

"Contes populaires, Préjugés, Patois, Proverbes, Noms de Lieux, de l'Arrondissement de Bayeux, recueillis et publiés par Frédéric Pluquet, &c.: Rouen, 1834."

Where saints' days are mentioned, I have added the day of the month on which they fall, as far as I have been able to ascertain it; but as it sometimes happens that there is more than one saint of the same name, and that their feasts fall on different days, I may perhaps, in some cases, have fixed on the wrong one:

"L'hiver est dans un bissac; s'il n'est dans un bout, il est dans l'autre."

This saying has probably originated in the number of marriages celebrated in this month; the season of Lent which follows being a time in which it is not usual, in Roman Catholic countries, to contract marriage.

An allusion to the boisterous winds of March, and the sharp, cutting, easterly winds which frequently prevail in April.

Poirette, in the dialect of Bayeux, means a leek.

Meaning the greatest cold.

Probably alluding to the rough state of their coats at this season.

Edgar MacCulloch.

Guernsey.

VAULT INTERMENTS (Vol. ii., p. 21.): BURIAL IN AN ERECT POSTURE (Vol. viii., pp. 329. 630.): INTERMENT OF THE TROGLODITÆ (Vol. ii., p. 187.).

In the 4th book of Evelyn's Sylva there is much interesting matter on this subject, besides what has been quoted above; and, to those herein interested, the following extract from Burn's History of Parish Registers in England will doubtless be acceptable:

"IX. Ut corpora defunctorum deinceps in Ecclesiis non humentur, sed nec intra quintum pedem a pariete extrorsum."

Sir Thomas Latymer, of Braibroke in Northamptonshire, by his will directed thus:

I, Thomas Latymer of Braybroke, a fals knyghte to God, &c., my wrecchyd body to be buried where that ever I die in the next chirche yerde, God vouchsafe, and naut in the chirche, but in the utterist corner, as he that is unworthy to lyn therein, save the merci of God."

"The Irish long retained an attachment to their ancient customs and pagan superstitions; and the custom of burying in consecrated ground was not universal in Ireland in the twelfth century on the arrival of the English, as we find it enjoined in the Council of Cashel, held in 1172, mentioned by Cambrensis. A short time since some small earthen tumuli were opened on the Curragh of Kildare, under which skeletons were found standing upright on their feet, and in their hands, or near them, spears with iron heads. The custom of placing their dead erect was general among all the northern nations, and is still retained in Lapland and some parts of Norway; and the natives of North America bury their dead sitting in holes in the ground, and cover them with a mound of earth."—Transactions of the R. Irish Academy, vol. iii.

A Query I proposed (Vol. ii., p. 187.) in reference to the Trogloditæ never having been answered, I shall, perhaps, be allowed to use this opportunity myself to furnish an apposite and explanatory quotation, viz.—

"Troglodytæ mortui cervicem pedibus alligabant et raptim cum risu et jocis efferebant, nullaque loci habita cura mandabant terræ; ac ad caput cornu caprinum affigebant."—Cœlii Rhodigini, Lectiones Antiquæ, p. 792.

I shall conclude with the rationale of the erect posture, as illustrated by Staveley in his History of Churches in England:

"It is storied to be a custom among the people of Megara in Greece, to be buried with their faces downwards; Diogenes gave this reason why he should be buried after the same way, that seeing all things were (according to his opinion) to be turned upside down in succeeding times, he, by this posture, would at last be found with his face upwards, and looking towards heaven."

Bibliothecar. Chetham.

In Much Ado about Nothing, Act III. Sc. 2., Don Pedro says:

Theobald, Johnson, and Steevens have left notes upon this line. The following passage is part of Steevens' note:

"Dr. Johnson's explanation may likewise be countenanced by a passage in an old black-letter book, without date, intitled, 'A merye Jest of a Man that was called Howleglas, &c.: How Howleglas was buryed:

"'Thus as Howleglas was deade, then they brought him to be buryed. And as they would have put the coffyn into the pytte with 2 cordes, the corde at the fete brake, so that the fote of the coffyn fell into the botome of the pyt, and the coffyn stood bolt upryght in the middes of the grave. Then desired y^e people that stode about the grave that tyme, to let the coffyn to stande bolt upryght. For in his lyfe tyme he was a very marvelous man, &c., and shall be buryed as marvailously. And in this maner they left Howleglas,' &c.

"Were not the Claphams and Mauleverers buried marvailously, because they were marvelous men?"—Johnson and Steevens' Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 310.

J. W. Farrer.

"In Oliver Heywood's Register is the following entry [Oct. 28, 1684]:

'Capt. Taylor's wife of Brig House, buried in her garden with head upwards, standing upright, by her husband, daughter, &c. Quakers.'"—Watson's History of Halifax, p. 233.

Cervus.

"Some Christians [Russians?] decline the figure of rest, and make choice of an erect posture in burial."—Browne's Hydriotaphia, ch. iv. p. 246.

Query, With the desire of meeting the Judge, face to face, when He cometh?

Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.

DO CONJUNCTIONS JOIN PROPOSITIONS ONLY?

(Vol. ix., p. 180.)

Professor Boole's communication on the above question reminds me of some remarks of mine, published in an article on Sir John Stoddart's Philosophy of Language, in the North British Review for November, 1850. In reference to the opinion maintained by Sir John Stoddart and Dr. Latham, that the conjunction always connects sentences, the preposition words, it is observed:

"It does not apply to cases where the conjunction unites portions of the predicate, instead of the subject, of a proposition. If I assert that a gentleman of my acquaintance drinks brandy and water, he might not relish the imputation of imbibing separate potations of the neat spirit and the pure element. Stradling versus Stiles is a case in point: 'Out of the kind love and respect I bear to my much honoured and good friend, Mr. Matthew Stradling, Gent., I do bequeath unto the said Matthew Stradling, Gent., all my black and white horses.' The testator had six black horses, six white horses, and six pied horses. The whole point at issue turns upon the question whether the copulative and joins sentences or words. If the former, the plaintiff is entitled to the black horses, and also to the white, but not to the pied. If the latter he has a right to the pied horses but must forego his claim to the rest. And if the latter interpretation be adopted, must we say that and is a preposition, not a conjunction, or must we modify the definitions of these two parts of speech?"

The following definitions are finally proposed in place of the ordinary ones:

"A preposition is a part of speech annexed to a noun or verb in a proposition, and serving to connect it with a noun or pronoun by which it is limited, as the subject or predicate of that proposition."

"A conjunction is a part of speech serving to unite two propositions as parts of the same complex assertion, or two words as similar parts of the subject or predicate of one proposition. By similar parts it is meant that the words so united stand in similar relations to the term to which they belong. For example, 1. As attributes, both qualifying a subject, 'Sic bonus et sapiens dignis ait esse paratus.' 2. As prepositions, both introducing limiting nouns 'without money and without price.' 3. As substantives, both forming parts of a collective subject, 'two and three are five.' Whereas with the preposition, the words united are not similar, but opposed, the limiting and the limited notion."

While differing from some of Professor Boole's views on the relation of logic to mathematics, I fully agree with him that the true functions of the several parts of speech must be determined by an analysis of the laws of thought. Both grammar and logic might be considerably improved by an accurate development on psychological principles.

H. L. Mansel, B.D.

St. John's College, Oxford.

Has not your correspondent G. Boole fallen into an inaccuracy whilst contending about the accuracy of another's logic? He seems to employ the proposition, all trees are endogens or exogens, as an example of an accurate proposition.

I forget the technicalities in which the objection to such a proposition would be properly expressed; but it cannot well be denied that all comprehends the whole genus, and expresses that whole collectively. If so, the proposition affirms that the whole genus of trees must either be acknowledged to be endogens, or else to be all exogens. Does not such an affirmation require the word every to clear it from ambiguity? Will it be cleared of ambiguity by saying, "Every tree is endogen or exogen?" Or must we say "Every tree is either endogen or exogen?"

If your correspondents should happen to take down the second volume of Locke on Human Understanding, b. III. ch. iii. § 11., on "Universals," his note will supply them with another knot to unravel, of which I would gladly see their solution. For he has there said, "Three Bobaques are all true and real Bobaques, supposing the name of that species of animals belongs to them." Is this name formed in jest? For the philosopher sometimes puts on an awkward affectation of humour in his replies to Bishop Stillingfleet, to whom this note is addressed.

H. W.

HAS EXECUTION BY HANGING BEEN SURVIVED?

(Vol. ix., p. 174.)

Two instances of criminals being restored to life after having been hanged are recorded, on good authority, to have occurred in this town. Henry of Knighton (who was a Canon of Leicester Abbey) relates in his Chronicle (col. 2627), under the year 1363, that—

"One Walter Wynkeburn having been hanged at Leicester, on the prosecution of Brother John Dingley, Master of Dalby, of the order of Knights Hospitallers, after having been taken down from the gallows as a dead man, was being carried to the cemetery of the Holy Sepulchre of Leicester, to be buried, began to revive in the cart, and was taken into the church of the Holy Sepulchre by an ecclesiastic, and there diligently guarded by this Leicester ecclesiastic to prevent his being seized for the purpose of being hanged a second time. To this man King Edward granted pardon in Leicester Abbey, and gave him a charter of pardon, thus saying in my hearing, 'Deus tibi dedit vitam, et nos dabimus tibi Cartam?"

We learn, on the authority of a cotemporary record, preserved in the archives of this borough, and quoted in Thompson's History of Leicester, p. 110., that in June, 1313, Matthew of Enderby, a thief, was apprehended and imprisoned in the king's gaol at Leicester; and that being afterwards convicted, he was sentenced by Sir John Digby and Sir John Daungervill, the king's justices, to be hanged; that he was led to the gallows by the frankpledges of Birstall and Belgrave, and by them suspended; but on his body being taken down, and carried to the cemetery of St. John's Hospital for interment, he revived and was subsequently exiled. Three instances are narrated in Wanley's Wonders of Man, vol. i. pp. 125, 126., and another will be found in Seward's Spirit of Anecdote and Wit, vol. iii. p. 88., quoted from Gamble's Views of Society, &c. in the North of Ireland; whilst in vol. ii. p. 220. of the same work, another restoration to life is stated to have taken place in the dissecting-room of Professor Junker, of Halle: but I know not how far these last-mentioned anecdotes are susceptible of proof.

William Kelly.

Leicester.

There appears to be no reason to doubt the truth of individuals having survived execution by hanging.

Margaret Dickson was tried, convicted, and executed in Edinburgh, in the year 1728. After the sentence had been accomplished, her body was cut down and delivered to her friends, who placed it in a coffin, and conveyed the same in a cart towards her native place for the purpose of interment. On her journey the dead came to life again, sat up in her coffin, and alarmed her attendants. She was, however, promptly bled, and by the next morning had perfectly recovered. She lived for twenty-five years afterwards, and had several children.

In 1705 one John Smith was executed at Tyburn; after he had hung fifteen minutes a reprieve arrived. He was cut down and bled, and is said to have recovered. (Paris and Fonblanque, Med. Jur., vol. ii. p. 92.)

When it is considered that death takes place after hanging, in most cases by asphyxia, in very rare instances by dislocation of the spine, we can understand the possibility of recovery within certain limits.

That artificial means have been adopted to ensure recovery, the case of Gordon, which occurred in the early part of the seventeenth century, satisfactorily establishes.

This evil-doer had been condemned for highway robbery, and with a view to escape from his penalty, succeeded in obtaining the following friendly assistance.

A young surgeon named Chovell (concerning whose motives we will not inquire too curiously) introduced a small tube through an opening which he made in the windpipe. The hangman, having accomplished his part of the tragedy, Gordon's body was handed over to his friends. Chovell bled him, and the highwayman sighed deeply, but subsequently fainted and died. The want of success was attributed to the great weight of the culprit, who consequently dropped with unusual violence. (Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Surgery in France, Sydenham Society Publications, p. 227.)

How far the mechanical contrivance by which Bouthron, in Scott's Fair Maid of Perth, was kept alive after hanging, was founded on successful experience, I know not. Nor do I know whether Hook, in his Maxwell, had any farther authority than his imagination for his story of resuscitation, though I have heard it said to be founded on the supposed recovery of a distinguished forger, who had paid the last penalty for his offences, and who was said to have really died only a short time since.

Oliver Pemberton.

Birmingham.

The Cork Remembrancer, a chronicle of local events, which I recollect seeing among my late father's (a Cork man) books, relates the fact of a men who was hanged in that city, and on the evening of the same day appeared, not in the spirit, but in body, in the theatre. I regret I have not the book, but it is to be had somewhere. Undoubtedly your late venerable correspondent, James Roche, Esq., could have authenticated my statement, and with fuller particulars, as I only relate the record of it from memory, after a lapse of many years. I think the occurrence, of which there is no doubt, took place somewhere about the year 1782 or 1784; and after all there is nothing very extraordinary about it, for the mode of execution by hanging at that time presented many chances to the culprit of escaping death; he ascended a ladder, upon which he stood until all the arrangements were completed, and then was quietly turned off, commonly in such a manner as not to break the neck or hurt the spinal marrow. It was most likely so in the case I relate and the man having been suspended the usual time, and not having been a murderer, was handed over to his friends, who took prompt measures, and successfully, to restore animation, and so effectually, that the man, upon whom such little impression by the frightful ordeal he had passed was made, mixed in the world again, and was at the theatre that evening.

Little chance is there of escaping death by the present mode of executing.

Umbra.

Dublin.

The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. x. p. 570., after giving the names of those executed on Nov. 24, says:

"And William Duell, for ravishing, robbing, and murdering Sarah Griffin at Acton. The body of this last was brought to Surgeons' Hall to be anatomised; but after it was stripped and laid on the board, and one of the servants was washing him in order to be cut, he perceived life in him, and found his breath to come quicker and quicker; on which a surgeon took some ounces of blood from him: in two hours he was able to sit up in his chair, and in the evening was again committed to Newgate."

And at p. 621. of the same volume,—

"Dec. 9th. Wm. Duell (p. 570.) ordered to be transported for life."

Other instances will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. i. p. 172., and vol. xxxvii. p. 90; and in vol. lxx. pt. i. p. 107. is the very curious case of Anne Green of Oxford, quoted from Dr. Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire, p. 197., which is well worth reading. Also, in vol. lvii. pt. i. p. 33., is a letter, containing the two following quotations from Cardan, in explanation of the phenomenon of surviving death by hanging:

"Is qui diu suspensus Bononiæ jacuit, vivus inventus est, quod asperam arteriam non cartilagineam sed osseam habuit."—Cardanus, lib. ii. tr. 2. contr. 7.

"Constat quendam bis suspensum servatum miraculi specie; inde cum tertio Judicis solertiâ periisset, inventam osseam asperam arteriam."—Cardanus, lib. xiv., De rerum variet., cap. 76.

In the Newgate Calendar, or Malefactors' Bloody Register, vol. ii. p. 233., is the account of Margaret Dickson, who was executed for child-murder at Edinburgh, June 19, 1728, with an engraving of her "rising from her coffin near Edinburgh, as she was carrying from the place of execution in order for interment."

"By the Scottish law," says the author, "every person on whom the judgment of the court has been executed has no more to suffer, but must be for ever discharged; and the executed person is dead at law, so that the marriage is dissolved. This was exactly the case with Margaret Dickson, for the king's advocate could not pursue her any farther, but filed a bill in the High Court of Justiciary against the sheriff for not seeing the judgment executed. And her husband being a good-natured man, was publicly married to her within a few days after the affair happened."

Zeus.

For the information of your correspondent I send an extract from the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1767:

"Saturday 24th (Jan.).—One Patrick Redmond having been condemned at Cork, in Ireland, to be hanged for a street robbery, he was accordingly executed, and hung upwards of twenty-eight minutes, when the mob carried off the body to a place appointed, where he was, after five or six hours, actually recovered by a surgeon, and who made the incision in his windpipe called bronchotomy, which produced the desired effect. The poor fellow has since received his pardon, and a genteel collection has been made for him."

C. R.

I would refer your correspondent Σ., who has put a Query whether persons who have suffered execution by hanging have outlived the infliction, to a case of a woman named Anne Green, which appears to be authenticated upon the most unequivocal testimony of two very estimable authors. The event to which I allude is described in Dr. Robert Plot's History of Oxfordshire, folio, Oxford, 1705, p. 201.; and also in the Physico-Theology of Rev. W. Derham, F.R.S., 3rd edit., 8vo., London, 1714, p. 157. The above-mentioned Anne Green was executed at Oxford, December 14, 1650.

Γ.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

A Stereoscopic Note.—I possess a small volume entitled A Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things, by T. H., B.B., Fellow of the Royal Society, 1688. "To which are subjoined, by way of Appendix, some uncommon observations about vitiated sight." In this strange appendix, one of the uncommon observations is worth the notice of your correspondents who write on stereoscopic subjects. I give you an extract from it:

J. Lawson Sisson.

Edingthorpe.

Photographic Query.—I think many amateur photographers would be thankful for plain and simple directions how to mount their positives on cardboard. Would the Editor of "N. & Q." assist us in this?

J. L. S.

Deepening Collodion Negatives.—I have lately been trying a method of deepening collodion negatives, so as to render instantaneous impressions capable of being printed from, which I have found to answer admirably; and although it is but a slight modification of Mr. Lyte's process described in "N. & Q.," it is a very important one, and will be found to produce far better results. The picture having been developed in the usual way, with a solution of pyrogallic acid, is whitened by means of Mr. Archer's solution of bichloride of mercury. The plate is then washed with water and a solution of iodide of cadmium poured on. This converts the white chloride of mercury, which constitutes the picture, into the yellow iodide, in the same manner as the solution of iodide of potassium recommended by Mr. Lyte; but is much to be preferred, as it produces a more uniform deposit. The solution of iodide of potassium dissolves the iodide of mercury as soon as it is formed, and therefore cannot be left on the plate until the decomposition of the chloride is complete, without injury resulting to the picture, as the half-tones are thereby lost, and those parts over which the solution first flows become bleached before the other parts have attained their highest tone; whereas the solution of iodide of cadmium may be allowed to remain for any length of time on the plate, without any fear of its injuring the negative.

J. Leachman.

Caution to Photographers.—About six months since, I procured some gun cotton from a chemist which appeared very good, being quite soluble, and the collodion produced by it was excellent. That which I did not use I placed in what I believed to be a clean dry-stopped bottle, and put the bottle in a dark cupboard. I was much surprised the other day, upon going to the cupboard, to find the stopper blown out, and the cotton giving out dense red fumes of nitrous acid. It appears to me to be almost upon the point of combustion, and I have, accordingly, placed it under a bell-glass in a porcelain dish to watch the result. I feel satisfied, however, that there is some risk, and, as it may often be near ether, spirits of wine, or other inflammable chemicals, that caution is necessary not only in preserving it at home, but especially in its transmission abroad, which is now done to some extent.

An Amateur.