Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/337

 B.X. OCT. 25, lure.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

329

earlier bera given in Williams's ' Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum ' as adv. within, en bera, within (equivalent, perhaps, to the Scotch ben)1 Long u and ee are not very dissimilar in Devon speech.

I should be obliged for references to works, other than Isaac Taylor's, dealing with the origin and significance of place-names and field-names, and more particularly of Devon- shire place- and field- name*.

ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.

" COMPASS WINDOW " : " COMPASS CEILING." The Parliamentary Survey in 1647 of Ford House, between Reculver and Canterbury, contains the following :

"And a large gallery on the aforesaid eastside wainscoted, having a compass window, and other large light, a compass ceiling clouded, and in length 82 ft.," &c.

Does this mean a round window and oval- shaped ceiling ? ARTHUR HUSSEY. Tankerton-on-Sea.

LESBIAN RULE." Do not let us follow the Lesbian rule of blaming such shifty ways in others while excusing the same in ourselves." To what does this refer ?

W. F. P. STOCKLEY.

Ottawa.

DRAGONS. What were the dragons (dracones) which, according to the ' Annals of Waverley ' (Rolls edition, p. 297), were seen in 1222 flying in the air and fighting amongst themselves ? They are mentioned also in other years and at other places. What is the modern scientific surmise in explanation of the apparition ? YGREC.

" CORYCIAN." It is stated in ' Who 's Who ' for 1901 that the recreations of a certain gentleman are chiefly " Corycian." What does this word mean 1 E. S. DODGSON.

[Gardening as a recreation seems to be indicated. See Virgil, ' Georg.' iv. 127.]

"TEENS." An argument arose as to when a girl enters her teens. One party held that she enters her teens at ten years of age ; the other that she did not do so till she was thirteen. Can you decide the knotty point ? G. H. TILLARD, Colonel.

[We think the second view the sounder, though we are not clear that practical usage always supports it]

FRANKLINIANA. In defining the phrase " To have axes to grind " ' N.E.D.' says, " In reference to a story told by" Franklin." Where in his works is the story told ? Again, a story often told is that before he reached his teens the long blessing said at table

before a morsel could be tasted seemed so tedious to the juvenile that he sought relief. Hence Franklin, looking on while his father was salting down pork for the entire winter consumption, begged the old gentleman to say grace over the whole pork barrel at once as soon as it had been filled. Such a whole- sale consecration must have appeared a grand timesaver to such an economist as Franklin. But as I find no record of this expedient, which was eminently characteristic, I turn to ' N. & Q.' to learn where the anecdote has been chronicled. JAMES D. BUTLER.

Madison, U.S.

THACRERAY A BELIEVER IN HOMOEOPATHY.

(9 th S. x. 63, 132, 197.)

DR. SYKES is not able to produce any evidence that Dr. Elliotson was a homoeo- pathist. There canf I think, be no dpubt what- ever that he was not. Let me give my rea- sons. Since DR. SYKES'S last note appeared I have read several other biographies of Dr. Elliotson viz., .those in the Lancet for 1868, the Medical Times for that year, pp. 164 and 253, the Times of 14 April, 1868, and DR. SYKES has referred to Baas's ' Outlines of the History of Medicine,' and they all speak of Dr. Elliotson's writings on mesmerism and phrenology, and not one word is said about his being "a disciple of the homoeopathic heresy." Further, it must be remembered that Dr. Elliotson was a great writer and lecturer on medical subjects, and one, if not more, of his books was reprinted in America and translated into several foreign languages ; and there is also his Harveian oration, de- livered at the College of Physicians in 1846 (praised by the Times for its "elegant Latinity "), in which he in dignified language avowed himself to be a believer in mesmerism, and urged his brother physicians not to be prejudiced, but to investigate the matter for themselves, and homoeopathy is not in any way referred to by him. Moreover, he estab- lished the Zoist, a journal of cerebral physio- logy and mesmerism, which did not advocate homoeopathy. It is absolutely incredible that the biographers of Dr. Elliotson, dealing with medical subjects, should have omitted to mention that he was a homceopathist if in fact he was one. Now as to my "certain knowledge." I and members of my family and various friends were from time to time for many years attended by Dr. Elliotson, and I was on most friendly terms with him,