Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/98

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. m. JAX. as, 1905.

matters connected with his profession comes with authority. He draws attention to a treatise, with the same title, written by Dr. Stroud, and published in 1846. I will not quote largely from the pamphlet, which deals with a subject too solemn for the pages of ' N. & Q.' ; but the following bears directly upon the query :

"The actual cause [of our Lord's death] was agony of mind, producing rupture of the heart. Mental shock, whether of sorrow or of joy, has frequently occasioned sudden death, and rupture of the heart has been observed not, as might have been supposed, to occur when the tissues of the heart are degenerated, but when nothing has previously occurred to impair their strength. It is only strong muscle that undergoes rupture from the energy of its own contraction. It is not the auricle that ruptures, nor the thin right ventricle, but the thick -walled left ventricle, which, contracting violently upon its contents, the blood being unable to escape with sufficient rapidity through the aorta, and the valves being perfect, the blood reacts upon the ventricular wall, which is torn at the point of least resistance and the blood escapes into the pericardium. But two instances of this have fallen under my own observation." Pp. 12, 13.

And again :

" It is probable that some of the deaths that have occurred as a consequence of severe shock, fright, or excessive joy may have been caused by cardiac rupture rather than mere syncope, asystote, or nerve shock." P. 14.

The pamphlet seems to have been first given as an address to the members of the Guild of St. Luke, by Dr. Symes Thompson when he was Provost of the Guild.

ERNEST B. SAVAGE, F.S.A.

A broken heart is by no means a mere metaphorical locution that has no foundation in fact. The affection is believed to have been first described by Harvey ; but since his day several cases have been recorded, for which see ' N. & Q.,' 2 nd S. i. 432, 497 ; also Dr. Townsend's ' Cyclop, of Practical Medi- cine' ; and other authorities cited in Timbs's 'Things not Generally Known,' Second Series, 1861, p. 174.

J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEL. [MR. E. H. COLEMAN refers to 3 va S. x. 514.]

ALLAN RAMSAY (10 th S. ii. 386). Mr. Gosse has very kindly written to me regarding the note at the above reference. He says that probably a line has fallen out in the para- graph which he devotes to Ramsay in 4 English Literature : an Illustrated Record.' The sentence to which I drew attention was : " In 1725 he published his best work, the excellently sustained pastoral play of ' The Gentle Shepherd,' the life of Ramsay." I ventured an exposition of the phrase that is thus made to follow the title of the poem,

but Mr. Gosse's suggestion makes speculation on the subject absolutely unnecessary. The sentence, he says, must represent two sen- tences of his MS., the first ending with the word "Shepherd," and the second running somewhat thus : " [Little else occurred to mark] the life of Ramsay." This at once dispels the difficulty presented by the text as it stands, and invests the movement with the ease and lucidity that are familiar charac- teristics of Mr. Gosse's graceful style.

THOMAS BAYNE.

"HUMANUM EST ERRARE" (10 th S. i. 389,

512 ; ii. 57, 293, 351). There is a yet earlier- instance of this saying in the collection of 'Adagia' by Gilbertus Cognatus (Gilbert Cousin of Nozeray, 1506-67), included in later editions of Erasmus's great work. See p. 518* of Grynseus's 1629 ed., where, under the general section ' Morum Contagio,' may be- seen, in the part from Cognatus, "Errare humanum est.

"Seneca lib. 4. Declam. 3. Pater, inquit, hu- manum est errare. Vulgo hodie ita profertur : Humanum est, peccare : sed perseuerare, diaboli- cum."

The words in the elder Seneca are " Per humanos, inquit, errores" (quoted by MR.

SONNENSCHEIN, 10 th S. i. 512).

On referring to Mr. King's book (No. 667, "Errare humanum est") I notice that, although he draws from the ' Adagia,' he still gives Polignac as the source of " Errare humanum est, :; and suggests that Cic.. ' Phil./ 12, 2, 5, may be the source of the med. prov.

"Humanum diabolicum." Surely its more

immediate derivation is from Augustine, ' Serm.,' 164, 14 (see 9 th S. xii. 62), " Humanum

fuit errare, diabolicum est in errore

manere." To escape this latter condemnation myself may I point out that, presumably owing to a 'slip of my pen, at 10 th S. ii. 293, under " Humanum est errare," " saltern hominis non est " was printed instead of " saltern hominis est " 1 EDWARD BENSLY.

The University, Adelaide, S. Australia.

" BROACH " OR " BUOOCH " (10 th S. iii. 28). This subject was fully discussed at 4 th S. iii. 286, 371, 446. Many examples of the two forms of spelling the same word will be found in Nares's ' Glossary ' and Annandale's ' Imperial Dictionary.' EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

In the matter of Tennyson's spelling, I quote, perhaps, a more cogent case : So Lawrence Aylmer, seated on a style In the long hedge, ' The Brook.'

Tennyson's ' Poems,' Glasgow, David Bryce & Son, 1899. H. P. L.