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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. v. APRIL w, 1900.

alter the figuring of the Fahrenheit ther- mometer by thirty-two points, making the boiling-point 180. For several years instru- ments could have a dual scale (" old style " on one side of the tube and " new style " on the other) until observers were accustomed to the newer form. The difference being so consider- able, there would be no danger of temporary confusion in meteorological records.

R. B. Upton.

Fahrenheit divided the distance between the freezing and boiling points of water into 180, that number being the half of 360. The number of degrees in a semicircle, 180, is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 30, 45, 60, and 90, and = 2* x 3* x 5. The greatest cold then known was that produced by a mixture of snow and salt. Fahrenheit noticed that the mercury of his thermometer plunged in this mixture fell 32 of these degrees below the temperature of melting ice. He therefore called the temperature of this freezing mixture ; consequently, the freezing-point of water 32, and its boiling- point 32-f 180, i.e., 212. For taking the average of a series of winter temperatures in this country this scale is more convenient than the Centigrade, as negative numbers very seldom occur ; also 1 F. is sufficiently small for fractions to be unnecessary in many cases.

Apropos of 360, let me urge on mathe- matical teachers and the printers of tables of logarithms to imitate the Germans in expressing angles in degrees and tenths and hundredths of a degree, as in Brennker's 'Tables.' We owe the Germans some courteous return for their adopting the meridian of Greenwich as the zero of longi- tude in their maps. Moreover, we shall thus avoid the confusion between minutes and seconds of arc and time. The construction of existing clocks and watches makes the retention of seconds of time imperative; but there is no utility, only needless complexity, in dividing 1 of arc sexagesimal ly.

T. WILSON.

Harpenden.

Fahrenheit's own description of the degrees of heat of boiling liquors, experiments of freezing in vacuum, and his new barometer, will be found in vol. xxxiii. of \\\Q Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. For more popular and less scientific accounts see Orr's ' Circle of the Sciences' and 'Museum of Science and Art,' by Dr. Lardner.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

THE SURNAME JEKYLL (9 th S. iv. 415, 483 ; . 152). Alban Butler tells us of Judicael, alias Giguel, an Armorican ascetic, circa 630 A.D., who was son of Juthael, a Briton, and brother of the hermit St. Jodoc or Jodocus, from whom St. Josse-sur-Mer and other places are named. Miss Yonge inclines to connect the prefix with Latin jocus (jocose) and Jodel the Swiss Yodel 1

Judichel of Domesday was sub-tenant of Ernulf de Hesdin in Wilts, and probably also at Wiboldeston, in Beds ; we may also trace his name in Judhel, a baron at Barn- staple, &c.' } while such variations as Ivichel and Juikel may be mere scribal caprice. What we know of the family name originates with a small manor at Finchingfield, in Essex, appertaining to Robert, son of Win. Juckell, in 1254; it passed from that family with Margaret Jekell (sic) to her husband, Richard Kemp, of Spains Hall, in 1371, and has since been therewith incorporated. My opinion is that this family emanated from London, because this heiress was daughter of Robert Jekell, citizen and mercer thereof. This Jekell may be shortened from joculus, but Jockel is a diminutive of Jacob, like Jack, the laird's "Jock," which we father on John.

After this heiress of 1371 there is a long break to John Jekyll, of North Minims, described as from Lincolnshire ; from him we get Stocker Jekyll, the City "common hunt" about 1560 ; John S. Jekyll, of Newington and Bocking, who obtained a grant of arms in 1621 ; a John Jekyll, citizen and fish- monger of London in 1683, who seems to have been settled in St. Stephen's, Walbrook ; so to Sir Joseph, Master of the Rolls, died 1738, and to Joseph, a wit and Master in Chancery, died 1837. We are told that Sir Joseph's father was described as " of London, plebeian," in the matriculations no doubt wealthy, but a fishmonger.

As to MR. W. H. STEVENSON'S etymological flights, they seem wide of the subject, and Welsh Judic remains unexplained. A. H.

" NEITHER FISH, NOR FLESH, NOR GOOD RED HERRING" (9 fch S. v. 125). A note-book in- forms me that this quotation is to be found in a volume of poems by Sir John Mennes, entitled 'Musarura Delicise.'

STAPLETON MARTIN.

The Firs, Norton, Worcester.

The more common form of this saying is "Neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring." THOS. RATCLIFFE.

"THE BEURRE" (9 th S. v. 9, 57, 114).- Whether M. Auzias - Turenne is as uuac-