Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/297

 9* s.v. APRIL M.MOO.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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escaped the vigilance of the commentators that this singular expression occurs in Cicero, ' De Oratore,' bk. iii. 41 : " Nolo dici morte Af ricani castratam esse rem publicam." Quintilian quotes it, 'Inst.,' bk. viii. 6. Ben Jonson, apparently following Quintilian, cites it in his ' Timber, or Discoveries ' (cxix.), as an instance of " deformed " metaphor. The question is, Where did Shakespeare find it 1 Are we to suppose that he was so well up in the classics as to be able to quote Quintilian or Cicero * De Oratore ' 1

E. S. ALDERSON.

VIRTUES AND VICES. I should esteem it a favour if any of your many readers could inform me of instances of the representation of the virtues and the vices, whether occur- ring in MSS., windows, carving, tapestry, &c. Examples on the Continent or in the British Isles will be equally welcomed.

THOS. A. MARTIN.

GENERAL SIR JOHN COPE. Of what family was this person the Preston Pans general and hero of the Jacobite song " Hey, Johnnie Cope"? J. H. COPE.

[Nothing is known as to his family. See ' Diet. Nat. Biog?]

WALTON AND LAYER FAMILIES. I am desirous of any information about the families of Walton, of Great Staughton, Hunts Col. Valentine Walton was a judge of the court which tried Charles I., and died in exile in Flanders and of Layer, of Boton, and Cringleford, Norfolk, and Shepreth, Cambs. Are any representatives of either of these families known to be in existence ?

(Rev.) B. HALE WORTH AM.

Low. Thomas, Leonard, and Sampson Low were admitted to Westminster School in 1776, 1777, and 1778 respectively. Can correspondents of '1ST. & Q.' give me any information concerning them or their parentage? G. F. R. B.

GEO. ROMNEY. I have a book on Italian art containing Romney's autograph with the date 1773, from which a book-plate has been removed. It appears that he went to Italy in that year. Is anything known as to the disposal of his books ? G. W. WRIGLEY. 68, Southborough. Road; South Hackney.

LIGHTHOUSE SINECURE. What sinecure office connected with lighthouses in general, or with any lighthouse in particular, existed during the last century ? If such an office ex- isted, is there any record of the holders of it?

H. T. B.

FAHRENHEIT THERMOMETER.

(6 th S. iii. 507 ; iv. 213 ; v. 79, 196 ; vi. 116 ; 9 th S. v. 229.)

THE scales in use for thermometers* are those of Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, F.R.S., freezing-point, 32, boiling-point, 212, in all English-speaking countries, and partially in Germany ; of Anders Celsius, the Centigrade (after its revision by Linnseus), freezing- point, zero, boiling-point, 100, in France, Sweden, and Southern Europe; of Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur, freezing- point, zero, boiling-point, 80, in Switzerland, Spain, France sometimes, and Germany ; and of De Lisle, freezing-point, 150, boiling-point, zero, in Russia. The Fahrenheit scale is the most serviceable of the four by reason of its smaller division, and also by the comparative absence of the minus sign ( - ) unless in very severe frost.

The principle on which Fahrenheit based his scale is, according to Dr. Traill, "when the instrument stood at the cold of Ice- land at it was computed to contain 11,124 parts of quicksilver, which, when plunged in melt- ing snow, expanded to 11,156 parts, hence 32 was taken as the freezing-point of water ; when the thermometer was plunged into boiling water the quicksilver expanded to 11,336 parts, therefore 212 was marked as the boiling-point."

The above assumption as to cold (made in the reign of George I.) was unfortunately incorrect in this country even, in Berwick- shire in December, 1879, -- 23 F. was recorded ; while the talented Robert Hooke fixed the thermometrical zero at the freezing-point of water as far back as the time of Charles II. (It may be incidentally mentioned that the freezing-point of water in some instances has been found lower than 32 by quite a degree.) One of our highest meteorological authorities, Dr. Robert Scott, F.R.S., says, however :

'Fahrenheit divided the distance between the freezing and the boiling points into 180 parts or degrees corresponding to the number of degrees in a semicircle, and he assumed as the zero of his scale the temperature which resulted from the mixture of snow and salt. This was 32 degrees below the freezing-point of pure water." With the coming of the next century the Russian Government, at great inconvenience, is altering its calendar to conform to the rest of Europe. With the new century it might be expedient also for us to

Transactions of the Royal Society, Symons's Monthly Magazine, or the Journals of the Royal Meteoro- ogical Society.
 * SCRUTATOR would find fuller details in the