Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/107

 ii. JULY so,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

99

these will be found in the Corporation Library, Guildhall. EVBRARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

PRIME MINISTER (8 th S. x. 357, 438 ; xi. 69, 151, 510 ; xii. 55, 431). I have already noted that in an attack upon Walpole in 1733 an author was quoted who referred to Mazarin as one who had occupied in France " the highest Post of first Minister." I now find that "Chief Minister" was Mazarin's accepted style in this country, as is shown by the following official announcement, issued soon after the succession of Richard Crom- well to the Protectorate :

" Whitehall, Octob. 18. This Afternoon his High- ness, standing under a Cloth of Estate in the Pre- sence Chamber, gave audience to his Excellencie the

Lord Ambassador of France, who presented his

Highness two letters, one from his Majestic of France, the other from his Eminencie Cardinal Mazarin, as cheif Minister of State." Mtrcuriuv Politico, 14-21 Oct., 1658, p. 925.

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

"ANIGOSANTHUS" (9 th S. ii. 7) is a genus of plants of the natural order Hajmodoracese, and chiefly to be found in Western Australia, where the natives near the Swan River eat the roots. The first part of the word is taken from the Greek , which signifies to hold up or lift up. ' W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

LILY OF WALES (9* S. i. 504). On St. David's Day, early this century, Welshmen dined together somewhere in London, and each wore a model of a leek made in seed pearls. My grandfather, Sir Richard Puleston, second baronet, was, I know, one of the conformers to the practice. E. E. THOYTS.

F. X.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. Foci* about. Bookworm*. By the Rev. J.

O'Connor, S.J. (Suckling & Co.) THE only fault we have to find with a little work that commends itself to the bibliophile is the title, which is not sufficiently comprehensive. Dealing nominally with bookworms, the booklet is occupied with all sorts of insects or "bugs" destructive of books. ' The Enemies of Books ' as a title has been appropriated by the late Mr. Blades, whose work has been necessarily of much service to the latest writer. Bookworms we take to be the species of maggot the traces of devastation of which wring the heart of the collector, while in the flesh it is rarely seen. The only one we have ever looked upon was obligingly sent us in a box by a contribu- tor. We did not experiment on the wretched crea- ture, but slew him forthwith. Mr. Blades had seen but three specimens of what he took to be book- worms. Father O'Connor, on the other hand, has studied under the microscope no fewer than seventy-

two specimens of insects destructive of books, and has given designs of many as well as much curious information concerning them. These are, however, of various kinds, no fewer than eight injects injuri- ous to libraries being described in an appendix con- sisting of entomological notes. Father O'Connor maintains, against the expressed opinion of Blades, that modern paper is subject to the attacks of the worm. He is right, though, so far as our personal experience sad enough goes, it is only the superior classes of paper that are injured. We found the worm in the Hunterian Society's publications. As to remedies. These are many, and as a rule of little value. The one thing indispensable seems to us to be constant disturbance. Old books, rarely touched, are almost safe to harbour worms. The light appli- cation of a cloth, a delicate brush, a mere opening and shutting of the pages, are all of use. In the case of a large library with heavy folios this is a troublesome operation to undertake, and it is not certain that the binding of old books will not be imputed. The necessity of keeping bindings unin- jured is almost as serious a responsibility as that of protecting the inside from the worm, which in this climate is not often very destructive. It is other- wise in India. Books scarred across with holes have come into our possession, the responsibility for the destruction being attributed we know not on what authority to white ants. We recommend the study of this little book to bibliophiles. It will supply them with much curious information of a kind for which they will be thankful, and it is in itself a pretty little volume.

An Etsay on Western Civilization in its Economic Axpect* (Ancient Timtx). By W. Cunningham, D.D. (Cambridge, University Press.) THIS is one of the volumes of the "Cambridge Uni- versity Series." For its size it is a work of much merit ; but we cannot help repining that one who is evidently so well qualified for giving us an extended treatise on this vast subject should have been willing to confine himself within such very narrow bounds. Two hundred and twenty small octavo pages are obviously insufficient for dealing, even in a skeleton manner, with the commerce of the ancient world.

Dr. Cunningham's knowledge of the trade routes of old times is great. Regarding the sea journeys of the states of antiquity much has been written some of it to good purpose but we know very little as yet of the trade pathways of old times which formed a network on the land. This is to be regretted, for land traders probably exercised a more permanent effect on civilization than those who used the high ways which the sea provided, for, as the author points out, trade routes are among the oldest and most enduring things in history. In most instances they owed their origin to physical causes which remain the same now as they were ere man emerged from savagery, and they were no doubt used by men passing to and fro at a time far antecedent to the earliest relics of history found in Egypt or the Euphrates valley. Not only did these pathways bring distant races into touch with each other, but they must have had no little effect on the spread of language. At every place where the traders stopped for rest and refreshment they must necessarily have held some communication with those who dwelt on the spot, and it is hard to believe that they did not leave some words, as well as articles of barter, behind them ; neither is it im- probable that in exchange they would pick up, now