Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/497

 9*s. V.JUNE is, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

485

" lillilow " (which I spell phonetically), mean- ing a sudden blaze or flare-up in a fire; a wordy contention such as occurs now and then among the ladies of the kitchen; and last, any little jollification.

LIONEL CRESSWELL. Wood Hall, Calverley, Yorks.

I have heard "pillillew" in Yorkshire, West Riding, and on 15 May a Cumberland man used it in my hearing in Ulverston. When I asked for an explanation of the expression, a Welshman who was present said it was common enough in Pembroke and Glamorgan amongst the working classes

S. L. PETTY.

Ulverston.

The word "pillilew" is used in the Hull Advertiser, 23 July, 1796, p. 4, col. 2, but I am not able to refer to it. W. C. B.

MUGGLETONIAN WRITINGS (9 th S. V/415).

I have seen a volume, years ago, containing the writings of John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton. The book opened by stating that what was therein taught was "by voice of word from God." My maternal grandfather was for some time a follower of this sect, much to his wife's annoyance, and the book belonged to him. The meetings of the sect were held in a private room, I have heard my mother say, and I believe the men drank at these meetings.

In the * Penny Cyclopaedia' there is a notice of this sect of Christians, in which it is said that a complete collection of the works of Reeve and Muggleton, together with other Muggletonian tracts, was pub- lished in 3 vols. 4to., 1832. E. A. C.

An imperfect autograph tract by Lodowick Muggleton, with reference to his excommuni- cating one William Medgate, in defence of his own supreme power as a prophet, is in Rawlinson MS. D. 1352 in the Bodleian Library. W. D. MACEAY.

Muggleton must have published books containing his opinions, though no copies may have been preserved. In Neal's 'History of New England,' among the laws against heresy, is one by which the books of Reeve and Muggleton must be delivered up to be burnt under a penalty of ten pounds. Alice Morse Earle in her * Customs and Fashions of Old New England' says, p. 288, "that some were burnt at Boston in 1654."

M. N. G.

On referring to 'The Registers of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, London,' transcribed by the Rev. A. W. C. Hallen, 1889, vol. i.

p. 173, I find that Lodowick, son of John Muggleton, was christened on 30 July, 1609. No mention of MSS. is made in the various articles which have appeared in ' N. & Q.,' but in February, 1896, Miss DixoN,of Harrow Lands, Dorking, offered to give some books and papers relating to the sect to any person collecting such things. See ' N. & Q.,' 1 st S. v.; 3 rd S. iii.; 4 fch S. xi.; 8 th S. ix., for nine articles on the Muggletonians.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

I have "A Divine Looking-Glass, or the Third and Last Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. By John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton, Pen -Men hereof, and the last chosen Witnesses, &c. The Fourth Edition. Printed in the year of our Lord 1656, and reprinted by subscription in the year 1760." There are 259 pages, and it is a good-sized quarto book, in the original paper wrapper. ALFRED J. KING.

101, Sandmere Road, Clapham, S.W.

"RACKSTROW'S OLD MAN" (9 th S. v. 269, 366). MR. J. ELIOT HODGKIN is unable to find this in Rackstrow's list of curiosities. May not the allusion be to the figure of Sir Isaac Newton which was placed as a sign over Rackstrow's door?

GEORGE MARSHALL.

Sefton Park, Liverpool.

CRABS' EYES AS MEDICINE (9 th S. v. 356). This term is a misnomer for the bosses of carbonate of lime on the under surface of crabs' shells. Superstition, the dominant feature of mediaeval physic, gave rise to the belief that animal concretions possessed mys- terious virtues over and above those of the

orresponding salt found in a natural state. The polypharmacy of seventeenth -century medicine prescribed "crabs' eyes" as one ingredient of several popular powders, and they were included in the first pharmacopoeia of 1618. Pechey ('Art of Physick,' 1697, p. 220) says :

" They are good to correct acid Hunwurs, and for the Collie and hysteric Fits and suchlike Diseases arising from an Acid. They are vulnerary and cure Ulcers and are very proper for Falls and a Pleurisy. They provoke Urine and expel Gravel. They take off the Effervescences of the Blood and cure intermitting Fevers."

The usual method of preparation was by grinding them to a very fine powder, adding thereto some rose-water, and forming the mass into balls.

Wadd (' Mems.,' &c., 1827, p. 151) says :

"England has been called the 'Paradise of Quacks.' Who could believe that a philosopher