Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/192

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [io' s. m. FEB. 25, 1905.

instance, is spoken of in a mid eighteenth century newspaper, in connexion with a highway robbery, as the "Dun Cow." And is not brown or dun colour a compound of red and black listre, in fact?

J. HOLDEN MAcMlCIIAEL.

There is a picture illustrating the ' Bring- ing in of the Yule Log 'in Brand's 'Obser- vations on Popular Antiquities,' p. 248 (Chatto & Windus, London, 1877).

D. v. B.

In support of PROF. SKEAT'S note on dun there is Lady Macbeth's ghastly invocation :

Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell !

FRANCIS P. MARCHANT.

Streatham Common.

"CuT THE LOSS" (10 th S. iii. 69). The expression in full is "cut short the loss" a maxim occurring as one of three "golden rules" adopted by David Ricardo (b. 1772, d. 1823), and prescribed by him to the intending operator on the Stock Exchange. Bicardo's rules were ; " 1, Never refuse au option when you can get it ; 2. Cut short your losses ; 3. Let your profits run on." The meaning of the second rule is self-evident in its general application, as instanced in the case of the Carthusian purchase. If to sell involve loss, to delay the sale may involve

Greater loss. Therefore sell now, and, by so oing, "cut the loss"; more explicitly "cut short the loss." In its application to Stock Exchange transactions, the maxim prescribes that when stock is bought, and when, con- trary to anticipation, it is found that prices are falling, you should resell immediately, and by so doing " cut short your losses."

JR. OLIVER HESLOP. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

This evidently means to diminish the loss of anything by some action whereby a certain amount of compensation for tlie loss is ensured :

"The Spaniards have amusingly and successfully cut the loss' in one small matter. As is well known, the terms of surrender of Santiago involve the transportation back to Spain of the captured Spanish soldiers at America's expense : and the contract has now been obtained by the Spanish ^transatlantic Company. Spanish soldiers will go back to Spain in Spanish ships manned by Spanish sailors, and all that America will have to do is to pay. The Westminster Gazette, 1898.

J. HOLDEN MAC-MICHAEL.

//IN COCKNEY, USE OR OMISSION (10 th S ii

307, 351, 390, 490, 535). Jealous of the

reputation of my native county, I cannot

allow MR. HELM'S aspersion to pass. I was

born in Norfolk, and know something of it ; but I have never known a Norfolk man, rich or poor, use an h where it should not be, or omit it where it should. Whatever other words or letters they may misuse (and their grammar is not always of the best), in this respect they are unassailable.

J. FOSTER PALMER.

PRESCRIPTIONS (10 th S. i. 409, 453 ; ii. 56, 291, 355, 492). DR. FORSHAW says I give no authority for my opinion that the scruple and the gramma were the same, and that this is only an assumption. The grounds for my statement are to be found in the work I mentioned, the English edition of Paulus ^Egineta, vii. 26. I will quote them :

1. Table of weights :

"Two oboli, which make a gramme (i.e., *crupu- Inm)."

2. Commentary on the section :

"24 scruinila, or rather scriptnla, called by the Greeks ypa^<tra."

3. Table of weights used by Arabian phy- sicians :

= 18 1 3, grains. Darchimi=2 dwt. 6, 9 ? grains " (i.e. 54, 9 j grains).

It is easy to recognize the Greek terms in the Arabic form of grame and drachimi, the r being transposed, as in our "grass" and "gerss." The weights against each show that not only the Greek, but also the Arab, phy- sicians, Avicenna and others, used gramma as- the equivalent of " scruple."

I may mention that this division of the- Roman ounce into drachms and scruples was- applied to other ounces which arose in the- Middle Ages, notably to our Troy ounce, now happily moribund, probably an offshoot of the ounce of Caliph Almamiin's new weights, which superseded the old Egyptian-Roman weights in the East, but were similarly divided. EDWARD NICHOLSON.

Liverpool.

"THE NAKED BOY AND COFFIN" (10 th S. iii. 67). A week or two ago there was an inquiry in The Globe from a correspondent who seemed to think that the sign of the " Naked Boy " was a hopelessly cryptical one ; but there is evidence extant quite sufficient, I think, to establish its true origin as that of a clothier, intimating the tradesman's readiness to provide habiliments for those in need of them. Woollen-drapers, mercers, and tailors, as well as undertakers and coach- makers, employed the sign. John Ellison was a woollen-draper at the "Naked Boy and Woolpack," over against Bull Inn Court in the Strand (London Evening Post, 22 Feb-