Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/22

NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. JAN. i, me. 235-42; 'A Collection of Greek Surgical Instruments' was copied in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1914, clxx. 777-8, from The Times of about 1 April, 1914.

'Græco-Roman Surgical Instruments represented in Egyptian Sculpture,' by H. S. Wellcome, is in Proceedings xvii. of the International Congress of Medicine, 1913, Section xxiii., 207-10. This has pictures and descriptions of a tablet showing a cabinet of obstetric instruments, including forceps such as were used a few years ago. The same volume has at pp. 137-42 a German article on 'Saws,' by E. Holländer, who has an article (also in German) on the 'Surgical Saw' in Archiv f. klinische Chirurgie, Berlin, 1915, cvi. 319-39.

A pertinent story was in the (London) Nation of 12 Dec., 1911, p. 426: A doctor was bored in an archæological excursion till he chanced to see a case of Roman surgical instruments: "By Jove, they've got the latest pattern!"

(11 S. xi. 452, 500; xii. 39).—This custom first came under my observation in Leicestershire in 1891. On inquiry of an experienced farmer, owner of a large dairy herd, I was informed that the presence of a goat had a soothing effect on grazing cows-in-calf, and prevented premature births.

(11 S. xii. 460).—A list of sixty-six different works dealing with the play of 'Othello' and its sources, &c., will be found on pp. 428, 429, and 726 of the 'Shakespeare Bibliography,' 1911.

JOSEPH STURGE (US. xii. 338, 370, 406). MR. HOWARD S. PEARSON'S " some years ago " as the approximate date of the accident to the Sturge statue at Edgbaston is liable to be misunderstood. I remember it well, and was surprised myself to find out, on looking through my set (1861-89) of Birmingham's classic serio-comic, The Town Crier, when a monthly, how long it is since it happened.

In The Town Crier for November, 1872, are the following announcement and im- promptu :

We regret to announce that one of our cherished local monuments is already falling to limbo. The other day the statue of Joseph Sturge suddenly amputated itself at the shoulder. Alas poor Sturge ! The arm that was never raised against any one in life has nearly dropped, upon

somebody in death. He who in the flesh was always giving alms, in stone is beginning to lose them."

The good that men do in their lives

In after years increases ; J. Sturge, in life a man of peace, Is now 1 a man of Pieces."

The lopsided Sturge looked down upon " Peace " and " Charity " for many months. I cannot find out when he recovered his arm, but there is a reference to him as still " armless " in The Town Crier of July, 1873 ; and long after-wards a suggestion is made to place the limb that fell in a " Museum of Amis," then being formed in the gunmakers" town, as a representative historic relic of Birmingham's earlier Joseph.

WlLMOT CORFIELD.

"SKIFFLES" (11 S. xii. 400, 466).- YGREC'S guess souffles would seem somewhat too modern for a country housewife of the seventeenth century if he suggests thereby the "kickshaws" of French cookery. At the same time it points possibly in the right direction for " shiffles " might be "bel- lows " or " snuffers" ; but if so, it is strange that dictionaries do not give the word as an alternative for the one or the other.

L. G. R.

CHRIST'S " SEVEN EYES " IN WELSH POETRY (US. xii. 420, 486). The last note that I received from the late Sir John Rhys of Oxford refers to the number of ' N. & Q. ' containing the above query, and runs as follows :

Coll. Jesu Oxon : Dec. 5th, 1915. DEAR MR. DODGSON, Many thanks for the en- closed. I am afraid I cannot answer the question* I don't know of the occurrence of the " seven eyes " in any other passage besides those you mention.

Yours truly, J. RHYS.

May he rest in peace !

E. S. DODGSON.

ST. SWITHIN AND EGGS (US. xii. 480). Let no one suspect me of being egotistical if I try to be informing on this subject. A punster might call me egg-otistica], but he should not do it in the decorous columns of 'N. & Q.'

I know not where the le gend was originally told. I have not found it in ' Gloucester Fragments,' i., edited by the late Prof. Earle in 1861, where he gives and comments on some leaves in Saxon handwriting on St. SwiShun ; but he quotes (p. 84) a passage from Caxton's ' Golden Legende,' 1483, which may well be repeated here :

" Saint Swythyne guyded full well his bysshop- ryche and d'yd moche good to y e toun of Wyn-