Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/393

 s. xxi. NOV. 14, IMS.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

385

wall. Ifc was 3s. 4c7. at Launceston, Stratton, and Saltash, the memorandum being made, " This is twelve Gallons to the Bushel "; 4s. 8d at Liskeard and Looe, " Sixteen Gallons to the Bushel"; 5s. Sd. at Bodmin, Lostwithiel, Tre- gony, Truro,St.Columb, Penryn,and Padstow, " Eighteen Gallons to the Bushel "; and 6s. at Helston and Red ruth, as "This is a greater Measure still." Four different prices are given for a bushel of barley, but the size of the bushel is not defined ; and two for oats, it being there added, " The Measure of Oats is great, and not at one Size, but in some Places more than in others."

The commercial confusion which must have followed from this can be well imagined ; and though by the Act 5 Geo. IV., cap. 74, the imperial measure was established as the legal standard throughout the United King- dom, the old local measures continued in use for a long period in some parts of the country, as was shown before a Select Committee of the House of Commons which considered the question a few years ago, under the chair- manship of Mr. Jasper More, the member for the Ludlow division of Shropshire.

DUNHEVED. [See also ante, p. 344.]

LATIN QUIP. Possibly the enclosed jeu d'esprit may prove interesting as showing the difference which quantity in Latin makes in the meaning of the word :

Cane decane canas : sed ne cane, cane decane ! De cane : de te ipso, cane decane, canas !

H. A. STRONG.

Liverpool University.

[A good deal of information on this subject is supplied at 6 th S. iii. 398, including several refer- ences to earlier communications.]

ASSES' MILK. According to Plutarch, asses' milk was commonly used by sick people in the time of Demosthenes: "They brought asses' rnilk, where there was need to recover health" (North's translation, Dent, viii. 173). Ben Jonson mentions it as a wash for the face to improve the complexion (* Silent Woman,' Act II. sc. i.). Edm. Hickeringill in 'Gregory, Father - Greybeard,' a reply to Marvelrs 'Rehearsal Transpros'd,' 1673, says, "Mine ass is good for something, gives good milk for a consumption, and is a repairer and restorer of the wasted body" (p. 119). In 1681 Sir John Reresby, Bart., M.P. for York, was quite disabled by gout and rheumatism, but "by taking asses' milk first and cows'

milk afterwards I recovered to a miracle

I must own a great deal to providence for the discovery of this medicine, milk " (' Memoirs,' 1875, p. 214). It is noticed also in Steele's

Tatler, 1723, p. 147. Pope drank it by Mead s order ('D.N.B.,' xxxvii. 183a).

In 1753 Dr. John Fothergill ordered John Wesley to drink asses' milk (Wesley's 'Works,' 1810, iii. 177 ; 'Life,' by Tyerman, 1870, ii. 174). It seems to have been commonly sold at places of health resort, e.g., at Richmond, Surrey, 1694, and at Margate early in the nineteenth century ('N. & Q.,' 2 nd S. yi. 526 ; vii. 16). In 1754 appeared in English 'A Treatise of the Extraordinary Virtues and Effects of Asses' Milk, with Remarkable Cases,' translated by Frederick Hoffmann, M.D. The following list is taken from Waring's ' Biblio- theca Therapeutica ' (New Sydenham Soc.), 1879, ii. 536-44 :

Quiquebceuf. Ergo Diabete Lac Asinum, 4to, Paris, 1672.

C. Mente. De Phthisis curatione per Lac, 4to, Helmstadii, 1687 (vulnera sanavit bubulo lacte).

J. A. P. Burgraf. De mirabili Lactis Asinini in medendo usu, 4to, Halse, 1725. English transl. by F. Hoffmann, 8vo, Lond., 1754.

J. Rutty. Argument of Sulphur with the

Analysis of Milk by the same, 8yo, Dublin, 1762 (cows', goats', asses', and sheep's milk).

C. F. Reuss. De Lacte Caprillo, 4to, Tubingse, 1769.

J. D. Hahn. De Lacte humane ejusque cum Asinino et Ovino comparatione, 4to, Ultraject., 1775.

C. L. Berthollet. De Lacte animalium medica- mentoso, 4to, Paris, 1779.

A. Parmentier et N. Deyeux. Sur les differentes especes de Lait, 8vo, Paris, 1799.

A. Bouchardat et T. A. Quevenne. Du Lait...des laits...d'anesse, de chevre, de brebis, 8vo, Paris, 1857.

M. Vernois et A. Becquerel. Analyse du Lait... chevres, brebis, bufflesses, 8vo, Paris, 1857.

M. A. Baines. Human and Animal Milks, 8vo, London, 1860.

C. D. Vivante. Delia Cura Lattea, 8vo, Venezia, 1874 (includes koumis).

W. O. Jt>.

BRANTOME'S VARIANT OF THE STORY OF

sur 1'edition de 1740") tells a like story, and

associates it (a somewhat exceptional case in

his stories) with a definite individual as one

of the jiersonce to wit, " feu M. le marquis de

Pescaire, dernier mort, vice-rpy en Sicile."

The story, he says, came to him "de bonne

part." It runs thus. The said marquis

fell violently in love with a very beautiful

lady-

" si bien qu'un matin, pensant que son mary fust

alle dehors, 1'alla visitor qu'il la trouva encores au

lict ; et, en devisant avec elle, n'en obtint rien que

la voir."

The husband unexpectedly arrives,

"et les surprit de telle sorte, que le marquis

n'eut loisir ae retirer son gand, qui s'estoit perdu,