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8 NOTES BY THE WAY. provided by Mr. Coxeter, and spent the evening with the utmost satisfaction at the success of their undertaking.

This coat was to be seen in the Great Exhibition, 1851, and is now in the possession of Sir Robert Throckmorton. A print representing a view of Mr. Coxeter's manufactory on Tuesday, the 25th of June, 1811, and the more distinguished persons present to witness the process, was subsequently published by subscription by Mr. Mitchell, of Bond Street. It was painted by Mr. Luke Clent of Newbury, and engraved by Mr. George Clent of London. The painting was also to be seen in the Exhibition of 1851.

By the kindness of Mr. James Coxeter, son of the above, I am able to submit a specimen of the cloth so manufactured to the Editor of 'N. & Q.' .

The following editorial note was appended: "In Southey's ' Common-Place Book,' iv. 395, the coat is described as a 'complete damson-coloured coat' and the feat detailed by our correspondent is said to have been accomplished 'two and three-quarter hours within the time allotted, for a wager of 1,000 guineas."

An obituary notice of James Coxeter appeared in The Athenæum of the 15th of November, 1902:

"James Coxeter, who died on the 4th inst. at the age of ninety, rendered good service to surgery in his time by his skilful inventions of instruments. Coxeter's bullet extractor, at the time of the war in the Crimea, was found to be invaluable; and in 1869, in conjunction with his son Samuel, he founded the industry of storing nitrous oxide gas in a liquid state for surgical operations, first in iron, and later in steel cylinders. This nitrous oxide, owing to the influence of Dr. Evans, the dentist to the French Empress, was largely used during the war of 1870, and some of these cylinders were the last goods to pass the investing lines during the siege of Paris."

My own contributions to 'N. & Q.' begin with one on

THE CRESCENT.

It is interesting to note that the Koran contains a chapter (liv.) entitled 'The Moon revealed at Mecca,' which commences thus: "The hour of judgment approacheth, and the moon hath been split in sunder." Mr. Sale has a note to this as follows:—

"This passage is expounded two different ways. Some imagine the words refer to a famous miracle supposed to have been performed by Mohammed ; for it is said that, on the infidels demanding a sign of him, the moon appeared cloven in two, one part vanishing and the other remaining; and Ebn Masud affirmed that he saw Mount Hara