Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/299

 12 s. ii. OCT. 7, me.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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THE " DOCTRINE OF SIGNATURES " (12 S. ii. lL'8, 197). It is scarcely fair to the first propounders of this doctrine to say that they I) '.-od the use of each particular herb " not t-n its actual properties, but on its real or supposed resemblance to the part affected." Paracelsus, to whom the doctrine appears to have mainly owed its vogue, taught that the virtues of plants depend upon the proportions in which they contain the three principles or elements of " sulphur," " salt," and ' mer- cury," and that these inward virtues may be known by " the outward shapes and qualities " which are the signatures of the plants. Similarly, Giambattista Porta taught, in his ' Phytognomonica ' (Naples, 1588), that the healing properties of herbs, no less than the spiritual qualities of men, may be revealed by outward signs. The virtues, however, are only indicated by the signs ; they do not reside in them. William Cole and Robert Turner, the great English exponents of the doctrine, speak to the same effect. The best herbalists even of the sixteenth century rejected the doctrine, but Ray, though he did not accept it as a whole, admitted that there were some apparent grounds for it :

"I will not deny," he wrote, "that the noxious and malignant plants do many of them discover something of their nature by the sad and melancholy visage of their leaves, flowers, and fruits.' '

A French writer contemporary with him, Guy de la Brosse, points out that the resem- blances upon which the idea is founded are easily imagined. The subject is well dis- cn--rd in Mrs. Arber's ' Herbals ' and Folkard's ' Plant -Lore,' to both of which I am indebted. The idea still lingers here and there among our country herb-doctors, but I do not suppose it is held now as a definite doctrine by anybody. C. C. B.

MOVING PICTURES : THEIR EVOLUTION (US. ii. 403, 456, 502, 517, 537 ; iii. 56, 125, 155, 194). At these references are to be found various allusions to and advertise- ments of the earliest form of "moving pictures," dating back to the time of Queen Anne. These can now be supplemented by an interesting extract from The Tatler of that day, in the shape of a mock advertise- ment, published in the issue for May 2-4, 1710, announcing that

" Whereas it has been signified to the Censor, That under the Pretence that he has encouraged the Moving Picture, and particularly admired the Walking Statue, some Persons within the Liberties of Westminster have vended Walking Pictures, insomuch that the said Pictures have within few Days after Sales by Auction returned to the Habita-

tion of their first Proprietors ; that Matter has been narrowly looked into, and Orders are given to Pacolet to take Notice of all who are concerned in such Frauds, with Directions to draw their Pictures, that they may be hanged in Effigie, in Terr or em of all Auctions for the future."

I would note that the illustrative extract given by MR. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL at 11 S. ii. 517, as being undated, is the adver- tisement in The Spectator for Sept. 27, 1711, a portion of which was quoted by MR. AXECK ABRAHAMS at ibid., 456. To this can be added another Spectator advertisement of April 19, 1711, which proves the continuance of Perikethman's connexion with the show, originally exhibited two years earlier (ibid.-, contribution of MR. A. RHODES). The later advertisement runs as follows :

" Mr. Penkethman's Wonderful Invention, call'd the Pantheon : Or, the Temple of the Heathen- gods. The Work of several Years, and great Expence, is now perfected ; being a most sur- prizing and Magnificent Machine, consisting of 5 several curious Pictures ; the Painting and Con- trivance whereof is beyond Expression Admirable. The Figures, which are above 100, and move their Heads, Legs, Arms and Fingers, so exactly to what they perform, and setting one Foot before another, like living Creatures, that it justly deserves to be esteem'd the greatest Wonder of the Age. To be seen from 10 in the Morning till 10 at Night, in the Little Piazza's Covent-Garden, in the same House where Punch's Opera is. Price Is. 6d. Is. and the lowest 6rf."

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

MRS. GRIFFITHS, AUTHOR OF ' MORALITY OF SHAKESPEARE'S DRAMAS ' (12 S. ii. 209). Information with regard to Mrs. Elizabeth Griffith (not Griffiths) may be obtained from the following works : the ' D.N.B.,' vol. viii. ; Robert Williams' s ' Eminent Welshmen ' ; David Erskine Baker's ' Biographia Dram- atica,' i. 301 ; Benjamin Victor's 'History of the Theatres of London,' pp. 69, 76, 137; David Garrick's ' Private Correspondence ' ; John Genest's ' History of the Stage,' vol. v. ; Robert Watt's ' Bibliotheca Britan- nica ' ; Gentleman's Magazine, xl. 264 ; Ixiii. 104 ; Miss Seward's ' Letters ' ; and Allibone's ' Dictionary of Authors,' vol. i. A collection of her works might also be consulted at the British Museum.

E. E. BARKER.

THE FRENCH AND FROGS (12 S. ii. 251). In ' La Vie Privee d'Autrefois,' in the volume labelled ' La Cuisine,' Alfred Franklin draws attention to the fact that grenouittes are an item of the dainty fare mentioned by Rabelais, and tells us that a thousand of the creatures were prepared in the establishment of the Archbishop of Paris for a banquet