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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. MAY 28, UM.

be familiar. The form of committal in the English Burial Service appears to be peculiar to Sarum ; I do not find it in the York or in the Roman service. Sarum and York both have a prayer beginning, "Temeritatis quidem est, Domine, ut homo hominem, mortalis mor- talem, cinis cinerem tibi Domino Deo nostro audeat cornmendare." In the Greek rite oil from the lamp and ashes from the censer, as well as earth, are cast upon the body ('Book of Needs,' tr. by Shann, Lond., 1894, p. 164).

J. T. F. Durham.

The form of commendation in the Burial Service is partly taken from the Manual of Sarum.

For the custom of casting earth upon the body three times cf. Horace, Od. i. 35, 36 :

Licebit Injecto ter pulvere curras.

CHR. WATSON.

Long and interesting articles on this sub- ject will be found in 4* S. viii. 107, 169, 255, under the head of 'Earth thrown upon the Coffin.' EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

BIRTH-MARKS (10 th S. i. 362). I am not a physiologist, so any opinion I might offer on this subject would be regarded as of little value. The following is, however, worth putting on record, as there is no doubt of the truth of the statements. I do not venture to suggest what inference, if any, should be drawn from them.

In December, 1836, an old man named William Marshall, and his sister, Deborah Elizabeth Hutchinson, who lived with him, were murdered in their cottage in this town. As soon as the crime came to light many per- sons who had known them flocked to see the bodies. Among the crowd was a pregnant woman who had been a friend of the victims. She clasped the dead woman's hand, and when her baby was born, which was a boy, it had two very short fingers, the first and second. This the mother fully believed to be the result of the clasping of the dead hand. The baby grew up to manhood. My informant, who is a very trustworthy person, knew him well, and has often observed the defective fingers.

The following passage from Jean Baptiste Thiers's 'Traite' des Superstitions qui re- gardent les Sacremens' is interesting, but, I think, must be looked upon as folk-lore only :

" Qui s'imaginent demeure debout ou

que si une femme grosse assise au pie" du lit d'une

personne agonizante, 1'enfant, dont elle est grosse, sera marque" d'une tache bleue au-dessus du lies, appellee la bierre, qui signifie que cet enfant ne vivra pas long- terns. "Fourth edition, 1777, vol. i. p. 236.

EDWARD PEACOCK. Wickentree House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

The points mentioned in this article are treated of in the following places :

Lennius, L., physitian, Secret Miracles of Natifre, 1658.

Digby, Sir K., Discourse Powder of Sympathy,

1660, pp. 83-5.

Malebranch, Search after Truth, by Sault, 1694, i. 145-59.

Turner, Daniel, M.D., Force of Mother's Imagina- tion 1726. (Munk, Roll of R.C.P., 1861, ii. 32.)

Strength of Imagination a vulgar error, 1727.

Blondel, J. A., Power of Mother's Imagination

examined, 1729 (in answer to Turner, Munk, ii. 31).

Mauclerc, J. H., M.D., Dr. Blondel confuted, 1747.

Ray, John, Three Discourses, ed. 3, pp. 53 sqq.

Athenian Oracle.

Hudibras, ed. Grey, notes on part iii. c. ii. 811.

Church, Miraculous Powers, 1750, p. xxxi.

Winter, G., History of Animal Magnetism, Bristol, 1801.

W. C. B.

This is a subject which occupied me a good deal some years ago, and the following are some notes I took concerning it :

" De Seleuco Mentore Syrise rege. ' Pariter inter miranda yenib, quod Seleucus qui Syrias regno, postea etiam Asire juraaddidit, ipse cum posteris nasceretur coxa anchorse imagine signata. Nee minus mirum matrem ejus somniasse se ex Apolline gravidam factam, et prcemium concubitus ab eo annulum accepisse, cui anchora sicut in filii coxa erat in- sculpta, quern annulum postea ad bellum cum Alexandro eunti Seleuco mater dono dedit, et miraculum quo annulum assecuta erat, narravit.' " Baptist* Fulgosii Genuensis ' Factorum et Dic- torum memorabilium Libri ix.' (Coloniae Agrippinse), 1604, lib. i. cap. 6, p. 41 et verso.

"Les figures enfin qui se trouvent aux auimaux raisonnables, sont toutes celles que 1'imagination

de la mere enceinte a imprimes sur 1'enfant Vne

mienne soeur avoit un poisson a la jambe gauche, form6 par le desir que ma mere avoit eu d'en manger, mais represente avec tant de perfection et de mer- veille qu'il semblait qu'un savant peintre y eut travaille. Ce qui est admirable en 569!, c'estoit que la fille ne mangeoit jamais poisson que celuy de sa jambe ne luy fit ressentir une douleur trea sensible : et un de mes amis qui avait une meure relevee sur le front, provenue aussi de 1'appetit de sa mere, ne mangeoit jamais pareillement des meures, que la sienne ne le blessat par une Emotion extraordinaire." Jaoques Gaffarelli, ' Curiositez inouyes sur la sculpture talismanique des Persans,' &c. (Rouen, 1632), lib. v. p. 105.

See also Plutarch, ' De Sera Numinis Vin- dicata,' cap. xxi.

EDWARD HERON-ALLEN.

The following anecdote from a little book entitled 'Comforts of Old Age' may prove an amusing illustration of this belief. The