Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/355

. it. OCT. s, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

291

The ensign attributed to the English ships has never been worn since the early days of James I., and the " Virgin and Child " on the sterns is quite impossible. Admiral Henderson tells me that on one of the sterns, the left- hand one, it is quite plain, "there is no doubt whatever" about it; the other is not quite so clear, and he thinks the female figure is wearing a crown. Whatever it is, it is entirely the imagination of a man who was, I understand, a good painter, but who as indeed Vanderbilt and Cornelis Vroom before him knew little and cared less of the niceties of flags or the carvings on ships' sterns.

J. K. LAUGHTON.

WILTSHIRE NATURALIST, c. 1780 (10 th S. ii. 248). Allow me to quote the following foot- note from 'A Dictionary of Birds,' part ii. p. 551 (London, 1893) :

" One of the first, at least in this country, to set forth the unity of the migratory movement seems to have been the author of a 'Discourse on the Emigration of British Birds,' published anony- mously at Salisbury in 1780, and generally attri- buted to * George Edwards,' though certainly not written by the celebrated ornithologist of that name. Mr. A. C. Smith has discovered that the author a man in many respects before his time was John Legg, hitherto unknown as a naturalist. But the real George Edwards also held opinions on the subject that are mostly sound, and his remarks, gathered from various parts of his greater works, where they appeared 'in a detached and unconnected form,' were republished, with a few modifications, in the third of his 'Essays upon Natural History ' (London, 1770), and may yet be read to advantage."

I may add that my late good friend, Mr. Alfred Charles Smith, sometime rector of Yatesbury, and the well-known Wiltshire orni- thologist and antiquary, whose attention I called to the subject, took some pains to make out all that he could about Joiin Legg, but with little result. Legg seems to have led a secluded life and died young. His ' History of British Birds' was never published, nor could the manuscript be traced. Any further particulars relating to a man of so much promise as he certainly was could not fail to be interesting. ALFRED NEWTON.

Cambridge.

In the edition of 4 A Discourse on the Emigration of British Birds ' which appeared as an appendix to 'A Thousand Notable Things' (Manchester, J. Gleave, 1822, 8vo) the writer therein twice refers to his ' New and Complete History of British Birds ' in such a way as to leave no doubt the work had already seen light. The author seems to have been well read, and acquainted with Gilbert White, Pennant, and the leading

naturalists of his time. The Barnstaple Athenaeum possesses a fine ornithological library, and perhaps the courteous librarian there (Mr. Wainwright) may be able to help.

WM. JAGGARD.

139, Canning Street, Liverpool.

PRESCRIPTIONS (10 th S. i. 409, 453 ; ii. 56). On submitting the questions regarding the signs used in prescriptions to my friend Dr. A. C. F. Rabagliati, of this city, I received the following reply, which fully answers MR. INGLEBY'S question. Dr. Rabagliati says that the meaning of the various characters used for denoting medical measures of weight and capacity, dry and fluid, is in some confusion, because different measures and different divisions of these measures were used in different places by different nations (chiefly Greeks, Latins, and Arabians) and at different times.

So far, however, as can be made out, the sign for drachm is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet, & and, as is well known, was constantly used to express the numeral six. This it did because the drachm con- sisted of six sextan tes or oboli of which term more immediately.

The term drachm is connected with Spd<r-

/ACU, to do, and meant as much as can be easily carried in the hand, the organ with which we act or do. The sextans or obolus was written O, and as a scrupulus or scru- pulum (or scriptolus or scriptolum) was half an obolus, its mark was half O, and as the right-hand half was generally used, the sign stood thus, ), hence the present symbol.

As to the ounce, Dr. Rabagliati is not quite sure. He thinks the symbol is the first letter of {ta-njs, a measure of about a pint English, but which may possibly have meant ounce, on account of the wide variety of measure- ments used, as above stated.

As secretary to the Association of Assistant Licentiates of the Apothecaries' Halls (Lon- don and Dublin), I may say that I intend shortly calling a meeting on this very topic. Hitherto I have come across no one who bas been able to give a correct and efficient description of the signs in question, and cordial thanks are due to dear old 4 N. & Q.' For once again being the organ to unveil a mystery. CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.

Baltimore House, Bradford.

DESCENDANTS OFWALDEF OF CUMBERLAND [10 th S. ii. 241). If MR. D. MURRAY ROSE will kindly turn to the seventh volume of the new 'County History of Northumberland,' ap. 14 to 106, he will find a very elaborate ustory of the house of Gospatric (from the