Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/100

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. FEB. 3. im

one sought by H. T. B. would be Robert Gordon, of the Kirkhill family ; born in Scot- land, 1687 ; entered the Scotch College, Rome, 1705 ; ordained priest, and left for Paris, 1712, where he was appointed prefect of studies and procurator. For many years he was occupied translating the New Testament into English ; and in 1743 he revisited Rome, to have his version approved before putting it in print. In this, however, he was dis appointed. In 1786 the translation, still in manuscript, was in the possession of Dr. Alexander Geddes. Father Gordon returned to Paris, where he lived for some time at the Scotch College, dying in retirement at Lens, 1761. See ' Diet. Nat. Biog.'

HERBERT B. CLAYTON.

"THE DUKES" (9 th S. v. 7). This word, which stablemen, &c., almost invariably pro- nounce as if it were written jukes, is pro- bably the same as the Scotch yeuks, which has a similar meaning, and seems to come from the German jucken, to itch. A.

I much suspect that the dukes is a corrupt spelling for what should rather be the jukes. We all know how many fail to distinguish, in speech, between dew and Jew. And, secondly, juke is a corruption of yuke, the usual Northern dialect word for "itch"; cf. Du. jeuken, G.jiicken; A.-S. gyccan (whence Eng. itch, for yitch). Some have doubted that initial y can become Eng. j; but we have many examples, as in jacobin, janizary, jasmine, jasper, jerboa, Jesus, Judah, John; and even Jerome, for Yerome, from Hierony- mus. WALTER W. SKEAT.'

ROGERS'S 'GlNEVRA' (9 th S. V. 3). MR.

FORD does not appear to be acquainted with the ballad 'The Mistletoe Bough' (very popular as a song when I was young), in which a story substantially the same as that of Ginevra is told of an English girl. Whether Rogers's poem or the ballad is the older I cannot say, but I presume the latter.

C. C. B.

THE SURNAME MORCOM (9 th S. iv. 148, 312, 406, 467; v. 16). No doubt some of the persons bearing this name may owe it primarily to Morecambe (Bay) ; but, apart from this, I do not see that it is absolutely necessary to assume that "Morcom" is Celtic. It is pro- bably to be equated with another English place-name cognomen, Morrlen, both meaning " the moor or marsh valley."

HY. HARRISON.

" BY THE HAFT" (9 th S. iv. 2H7, 355 ; v. 38) When I learnt single-stick at school, thirty

dd years ago, we used to touch the basket of our o\vn sticks) as a sign that we acknow- ledged to have been hit. I wonder if this custom was derived from the one mentioned n Scott's ; Minstrelsy of the Scottish Bor- der.' The incident your correspondent J. H. C. mentions is in Kipling's story 'The Man Who Was.' J. C.

" ANCHYLOSTOMEASIS " (9 th S. v. 28). This word should be " anchylostomiasis " or 1 ankylostomiasis." It is the name of a disease of the bowels caused by a small worm, the Anchylostomum duodenale. The parasite was first discovered at Milan in 1838. D. M. R. will find the subject fully dealt with in a ' Report on Anaemia, or Beri-beri, of Ceylon,' by W. R. Kynsey, principal civil medical officer of Ceylon, published at the Ceylon Government Press in 1887.

DONALD FERGUSON.

Croydon.

The following, from Dunglispn's 'Dictionary of Medical Science,' p. 67, will perhaps give D. M. R. the information he requires :

" Ankylomiasis (ankylo, stiffness; stoma, mouth). Morbid conditions from presence of Ankylostomum duodenale, observed in miners hence called miner's ancemia and workers in tunnels, attended with morbid heart - sounds, dropsy, and deficiency of white corpuscles in the blood."

The Ankylostomum duodenale referred to in the above extract is, according to the same authority, a "parasitic worm in the upper portion of the hu man intestine, causing fatal anaemia." The disease is, I may add, sometimes called " ankylostomo - anaemia," and perhaps it bears other names, for the vocabulary of medical men is wonderfully varied. I think that D. M. R. has not got exactly the correct spelling of the word ; it may be spelt " ankylostorniasis," as in Dunglison (whose work was published in America), or " anchylostomiasis " (some English dictionaries render ankylo "an- ehyio"), but scarcely, as D. M. R. gives it, " anchylostorneasis." The Lancet, by the way, which ought to be an authority on the spell- ing of medical words, I see uniformly uses a k in " ankylosis." R. CLARK.

Walthamstow.

HERALDIC (9 th S. iv. 538). The arms, Sable, on a pale or three torteaux (not porteaux), with crest, a dolphin haurient azure, are ascribed to the Hambly family. The rnotto, although given in several works as " Cautus sed strenue," should, I think, be " Caute sed strenue." There is no published pedigree of this Cornish family. Scattered notes respecting individuals of this name