Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/421

 10 s. vii. MAY 4, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

345

the lives of her brothers. It is evident how the blunder has arisen, for while Miss Kennedy was the chere amie of the Hon. John St. John, Miss Jones was the mistress of his brother Lord Bolingbroke. There was every reason why an engraving of Polly Jones should be published in May, 1771, for during the previous year she had won much fame by her amours and quarrels with Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, brother of George III. Boydell, who pub- lished the print, ought to have known whom it represented ; and if Chaloner Smith had been aware of the facts that I have given, he would have accepted the statement of the publisher's catalogue.

In order to prevent further confusion I may add that this Polly Jones seems to be quite a distinct person from the Miss Jones mentioned in connexion with Col. Luttrell in The Town and Country Mag., iii. 625.

HORACE BLEACKLEY. Fox Oak, Hersham, Surrey.

DE QUINCEY AND ANIMAL MAGNETISM. Some time ago Mr. Walter T. Spencer issued a catalogue of autographs which included an undated letter written by the English Opium-Eater. " I desired," De Quincey writes,

"to ascertain your present way of viewing the subject of Animal Magnetism, on which (encouraged by two former conversations) I am writing a sheet.

Meantime any balance remaining to me on this

H.M. art. [or "act," for " account "] my son would

receive for me Received already 1L ; next 10*

next 21. ; next 51. Total 81.- 10*." He ends :

"I would like the first opportunity, when I could do so with safety, for calling and speaking to you."

The name of the person to whom the letter is addressed in not given, but it was obviously William Tait, the editor of Tait's Magazine. The "H.M. art." is the long notice of Hannah More which appeared in Tait for December, 1833. It was not included in De Quincey's own ' Selections, Grave and Gay,' but was identified by Prof. Masson for his edition of the writings" of the opium-eater.

The article on animal magnetism appeared in Tait for January, 1834. The testimony of the letter would be sufficient, but it can be reinforced. In Tait for July, 1838, there is a second paper on animal magnetism, and it contains these words :

" It will save many of our readers a world of trouble, it at the outset of this article we recall to their recollection an article on Animal Magnetism which appeared in a former number of this maga- zine [a foot - note gives the precise reference, as above] from the able, and on this subject at once

psychological and physiological the congenial pen of Mr. De Quincey."

Was the second paper also by De Quincey,. and the passage quoted an editorial inter- polation ? It is possible, but perhaps not probable. The second article is partly a notice of Dupotet's ' Introduction to Animal Magnetism,' and partly an account of the experiments and conclusions of Dr. Elliotson and Prof. Mayo. The aim of the first article was to call the attention of the public to an important document which up to that time had been ignored by British writers. The report of the commission of inquiry appointed by the French Government was issued in 1784, and is called by De Quincey " the most memorable instance on record of violent prejudice, and the extent to which it paralyzes the judgment." It formed the basis of most of the English notices of the subject.

But at the end of 1825, after considerable debate, the Paris Academy of Sciences decided upon a fresh investigation ; and it is the result of this second inquiry that De Quincey has epitomized in his article, which has not yet been included in any collected edition of his writings.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

Manchester.

" BEITZMER "= IRISHMAN. In the Yid- dish jargon of New York and London an Irishman is called " Beitzmer." The origin of this name is sufficiently curious to be worth preserving here. In Harkavy's ' Dic- tionary of the Yiddish Language,' 1898, it is printed in Hebrew characters "iyD l| V < Q but no etymology is given. The word is really hybrid. Beitzim is the Hebrew for " eggs," and the termination -er is German. It would seem that when the German Jews first heard the name Ireland, they connected it with the German word for " eggs," as if it were Eier-land, " the Land of Eggs." Hence they imagined that a fitting trans- lation of Irishman into jargon would be " Beitzmer," i.e. " Egg-lander." This pecu- liar rendering is now common, and is universally understood.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

" KIDNAPPER." The following quotation from The Spectator is given in Johnson's dictionary : " These people lye in wait for our children, and may be considered as a kind of kidnappers within the law." The same quotation appears in 'The Century Dictionary ' and in Richardson. Even Richardson, who is so very helpful in this matter, failed to find the reference. I have-