Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/518

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NOTES AND QUERIES. in s. xn. DEC. 25, 1915.

brasses on its walls, which used to wear the time-honoured green patina of the atmosphere, had been rubbed as bright as the latest door-plate in the least cloistered street of London. As an Old Wykehamist I protest. E. S. DODGSON.

Oxford Union Society.

EDGAB ALLAN POE (11 S. xii. 302, 350, 265). I am obliged to the correspondents who have replied to my query. I should be glad of further assistance on the following points. Dr. Arnott of Bedford Square, London, on 15 May, 1821, writes to John Allan at Richmond, Va. : " Master Edgar is still inhabiting one of my rooms" ; and this would lead one to believe a print of " Master Edgar " must have been meant, for the child returned with his parents to Richmond, Va., in 1820. Does any one know of this print ?

During the period that Poe was at Stoke Newington School, his foster-parents resided p,t 47, Southampton Row, London. I should be glad to learn of a print prior to 1820 or thereabout.

There appears to be some confusion amongst Poe's biographers as to the site of V)r. Branby's school at Stoke Newington. In a sketch by Sir Walter Besant in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, December, 1900, p. 227, there is a sketch by Joseph Pennell of the school'; but I am informed by Mr. George Preece, Librarian, Church Street, Stoke Newington, that it is incorrect, as the school was situated on the other side of the street. The sketch in Ingram' s ' Life of Poe ' is also wrong. Perhaps some reader may be able to refer me to a correct print. R. M. HOGG.

Bank Street School, Irvine, Ayrshire.

CATHEDRAE BELL STOLEN (US. viii. 27, 2 GO, 377). A story of the disappearance of the treble bell from Worcester Cathedral in 1863 is told in The Ringing World, 10 Dec., 1915 (p. 269), as follows :

" They had eight bells there at that time, and one day a visitor was shown up into the tower. He saw- the bells, and on the way down was taken into the ringing chamber, where he saw the ropes. ' How many bells did you tell me you had ? ' said he to the guide. ' Eight,' was the reply. ' Well, I only counted seven when we were up amongst them,' said the visitor. ' But here are the ropes, eight of them,' said the cicerone. ' There may be eight ropes, but I only saw seven bells,' was the answer. To convince the visitor the guide took him back up the steps. And then they counted the bells, and sure enough there \vere only seven. The treble was gone, spirited

away, as clean as it might have been in a conjuring trick by David Devant. There was consternation'- not only among the ringers, but also among the authorities. How the bell went, or what became of it, no one knew, nor, I believe, do they to this

day Worcester Cathedral treble was never-

found."

F. H. C.

DISRAELI: REFERENCES SOUGHT (11 S.. xii. 360, 406). No. 1 and note. May I cite one earlier than the 1784 of Johnson? In chap. vii. of ' The Vicar of Wakefield,' 1766,. the young squire says to Moses, " I find you want me to furnish you with arguments and intellects too." I imagine this cheap " facer "' was even then stale enough to be a hall-mark of a parasitic wag, for this small Lothario is intended to be frothy.

FORREST MORGAN.

Hartford, Conn.

THE WATER OF THE NILE (11 S. xii.. 443). The alleged method of purifying 1 he- water of the Nile is novel to me, and certainly not adopted on a large or practical" scale. In the case of almonds, possibly the idea is that the small amount of prussic acid which some varieties contain may poison the bacteria, but as a rule anything which will do that renders the water unfit for human consumption. The only exception to this known to me (and that for use only on a small scale) is that of the tablets of 15 grain? of acid sulphate of soda sweetened with saxin and flavoured with oil of lemon. These are- sometimes issued to troops for use in case of an emergency. One tablet is put into a pint water-bottle full of suspected water and left for 20 minutes, by which time any bacterial germs of life will be- killed and the water may then be drunk ; but the continued use of water so treated causes digestive troubles. Boiling or nitra- tion are the only practical methods of render- ing water sterile.

When I was in Egypt in 1913 the city bac- teriologist of Cairo told me he would not mind drinking unfiltered water collected from the* middle of the Nile ; and I was told that the eminent irrigation engineer, Sir William Willcocks, K.C.B., always drank Nile water so collected, and offered it as a treat to his friends ! The bacteriologist's explanation was that even if the Nile water were polluted with Bacillus typhosus, the enormous volume of water would make the dilution very great, besides which there is the germicidal action of the sun's rays on the water.

I frequently saw the natives collecting Nile water in skins and earthen vessels, and