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stored to its original channel; and, that the secret of the restingplace of Alaric might never be known, a massacre was made of all the prisoners, who had been engaged in the work."

J. H. W. SCHMIDT. ROGER BACON'S ANAGRAM CONCEALING GUNPOWDER. (Vol. III, p. 59.) Who can furnish the anagram in which Roger Bacon concealed the making of gunpowder? ROGER.

The sentence in which Roger Bacon describes the constituents of gunpowder occurs in his Epistola de secretis operibus artis (p. 69), and is as follows:

"Sed tamen salis petræ LURU VOPO VIR CAN UTRIET sulfuris, et sic facies tonitrum et coruscationem, si scias artificium."

The

The words in capitals are commonly supposed to be anagrammatic, but no satisfactory transposition of the letters can be made. 12th, 13th, 11th, 6th, and 14th letters make "car*on " which some believe to be carbon; the 7th, 2d, 1st, 5th, 19th, and 17th letters make pulver (=powder), hence powdered charcoal is supposed to be indicated by the enigmatical words. Only a small part of the letters, how

ever, are used in this interpretation.

Some authorities give these words: luru mope can ubre, which is simply a transposition of the letters forming carbonum pulvere and has evidently been devised to suit the occasion.

H. C. BOLTON, Hartford, Conn.

"PRAISE FROM SIR HUBERT STANLEY IS PRAISE INDEED." (Vol. III, p. 59.) Can any one direct me to the origin of this phrase?

DJAFAR.

The quotation, "Praise from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed," should be given thus: "Approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed." It occurs in "A Cure for the Heartache," by Thomas Morton (1764-1838) author of "Speed the Plough," and other works. PUCK.

BLENNERHASSET AN ENGLISHMAN. (Vol. I, p. 176.) Was Blennerhasset, tried in Richmond, Va., for engaging in Aaron Burr's plot, an Englishman or an Irishman? In Lippincott's "Dictionary of Biography," by Dr. Thomas, he is said to be an Englishman. By William Wirt, at the trial, he was called an Irishman. DONO.

The American additions to Chambers' Encyclopædia says that Herman Blennerhasset was born in England in 1734, bred to the law

in Ireland, and, that selling his estates in Ireland, he came to the
United States.
J. H. W. SCHMIDT.
WARMEST and Coldest AVERAGE TEMPERATURE. (Vol. II, p. 415.)
What State in the Union has the warmest average temperature?
What State the coldest ?

O. J. EATON. The warmest average temperature in the U. S. is 69° as reported from New Orleans, Louisiana, and Tucson, Arizona. The coldest average temperature is at St. Paul, Minnesota, and is 42°.

J. H. W. SCHMIDT.

DEEP SEA-SOUNDINGS. (Vol. II, p. 590.) What and where have been the deepest sea-soundings from which bottom specimens, and temperature have been obtained? GIMEL.

The deepest trustworthy sea-sounding ever made was 26,850 feet, due north from New Guinea. Deeper soundings have been reported, but no one knew how much was "sounding," and how much was "drift," as the instruments were inaccurate. J. H. W. SCHMIDT. MEETING-HOUSE FIRST APPLIED TO CHURCH. (Vol. III, p. 59.) When and under what circumstances was the word "meeting-house" first applied to a church edifice? J. M. C., Castleton, Vt. separated from the Established name meeting-house was apThey seem to have preferred it bishop, and marriage-rings, as

After the Puritans of England Church in the time of Charles II, the plied to their places of assemblage. themselves, regarding church, priest, pertaining to popery. The methodists and Quakers were even more attached to the distinction than the Dissenters. A. WILDER, M. D. WAS THERE A BATTLE FOUGHT AT LEXINGTON, MASS., APRIL 19, 1775.? (Vol. III, p. 51.) As I have read it, the minute men of Lexington were drawn up on the common there, fired upon and dispersed without any shooting back. The real battle was at Concord, where several men got hurt on both sides, and did not go home.

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A. WILDER, M. D.

CORRECTIONS. Perhaps some of my writing is a little illegible; at any rate I desire to correct a word or two in the February-March Nos., 1886. Vol. III, p. 48, 4th line from bottom of my article, read Gercoa, lively, is the source of our word, 'chirk.'' Page 49, 18th line from top, read "Tyrants, also, though better rulers than kings, were regarded as profaners of the old sanctities." In those days orders were privileged. Certain individuals and classes regarded it as their place to rule, and others' duty to obey. A. WILDER, M. D.

HISTORY OF THE LETTER J. (Vnl. III, p. 42.) "B. C. MURRAY" questions my statement that J j was introduced as a new letr* in (i. e. about) midl of 17th century, and cites a work printed 1631, in which it is used with power of J as now. The truth is, it came into general use coëval with Cromwel's power, 1649 to 1658. From 1630 to 1646 its use is rare; from 1640 to 1650, not infrequent, yet not very comon; from 1650 to 1660 it is overwhelmingly prevalent; after 1660 its use was almost universal in Britain. Between 1620 and 1630 its use must be exceedingly rare, altho it wud not surprise me to see it. It is not found in the 1623 edition of Shakspere. There is Iohn, lack, Iuno, lupiter, Iulia, iust, iest, ioyne, etc., for John, Jack, Juno, Jupiter, Julia, jnst, jest, join, etc. Curiusly enuf we hav in the title page an ornamental capital I twice in the word ORJGJNALL.

In the ordi-
The above

nary Roman type in the body of the work J is not found. does not conflict with the fact that J occurs even erlier, but it was not used for the sound J, as now. In centuries preceding the 17th, it became fashionabl to tail the last I or i in a Roman numeral, as viij for eight, xij for twelv. This fashion prevails in script to our day, being, however rarely seen now except in fysician's prescriptions. Hence the type-founders of 15th and 16th centuries, to imitate a ritn fashion, cast a taild i, which was and is j. In 17th century the bright tho't ocurd to several that it wud make a good new letr, and so it came into use, and I was taild to make its capital J. This will explain its divers use by different nations: the French use it with the power of s in our word vision; Italians, for vowel in eel; Spaniards, for the aspirant, our h; Germans, like y in yet. Which nation first used it as a new letr is an interesting query. In the printer's case of our day J is placed after Z, evidence of recent introduction.

A. H., Port Hope, Ontario.

REVISED SPELING. Omit evry useles letr: change d to t, ph to ƒ, gh to f, if sounded so. These rules are nearly tantamount to the 24 rules givn Vol. II, p. 568, but much more redily remembered and easily aplied. They ar justified by Revision of Speling (now in progres). Such speling is to be preferd, just as Revised Translation of Bible is preferd to that of 1511. For further particulars send stamp for Fonetic Herald, Port Hope, Ontario.

HISTORY OF THE LETTER W. In like maner, printers of the 16th and 17th centuries, recognizing the first sound in wet as not having its own letr, and not having the asinine stupidity of resistance to improvement exhibited in our day, began to doubl V for the sound W, thus VV. After a time, the two were joined and cast as a single type as now. Of this, ther wer two forms: in one the last stroke of the first V crosst the first stroke of the second. In 16th-century books one wil ofn see W, this crosst W, and VV on the same page. This was becaus printers sometimes had it in one font or size of type, and not in another font or size in the same printing office. W got prety wel setld about close of the 16th century. Neither French, Ital. ian, nor Spanish hav ever adopted W into their alphabet, altho they hav the sound which we have assigned to it. Germans use it with power

In cer

of our V, in that pronunciation called "the best German." tain districts it represents a sound very near that we give it. It is probably from these Saxon districts that our Anglo-Saxon tung has acquired the sound. Having got the sound, our ancestors very properly invented a new letr for it. So shud we invent new letrs for the sounds in our language which lak separat alfabetic signs.

A. H., Port Hope, Ontario. MURDERING LATIN. A PROTEST. Allow me to protest against the modern fashon of representing clasic Latin by italics and lower case letrs. Such is proper for modern tungs, but not for Latin, which during the clasic age had capital forms only in its alfabet of 20 letrs: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, v, x. Yet our modern printer puts in haf-a-dozen other now letrs :

J, K, U, W, Y, Z !!

The script forms are the invention of a later age, the monkish or medieval. Our italic is a modern standing imitation of this monkish script; our lower case, an upright imitation. Let me sugest, as being more true, puting Latin quotations in SMALL CAPITALS. "Julius Cæsar' wud then be IVLIVS CÆSAR. In ephigraphy and numismatics this is very wel now. The idea of puting such new-fangld letrs as J and V into clasic Latin is preposterus. Horace and Virgil cud not read their own works in modern dres, which is not a respectabl imitation of clasic Latin, but a mongrel, hybrid, hermafrodite conglomeration of antique,

medieval,modern-neither fish, flesh, nor fowl-neither Latin nor anything els. A. H., Port Hope, Ontario. MAGNIFYING POWER OF OPTICAL GLASSES. (Vol. III, pp. 60, 81.) If rays fall upon a convex glas they wil, after refraction, meet at or converge to a point called the focus. If the incident rays be paralel, the point is the principal focus. All rays are practicaly paralel if the luminus point be at a comparativly great distance. The focal distance is distance between centr of glas and principal focus. The shorter the focal distance the stronger the glas. In Britan and America the distance is commonly exprest in inches; where the metric system is in vog, ofn in corresponding values. A 3-inch glas is said to hav a power of 3; an-8 inch glas, %; etc. Hence the nearer the fraction to unity the stronger the glas, I denoting a one in glas. In concave glases, it is the same as with convex, MVTATIS MVTANDIS. distance of microscopic glases is the fraction of an inch, as %, the smaller the fraction the more the magnifying power: i, e. or focal distance %, the power is 6. A. H., Port Hope, Ontario.

The focal

FRENCH MEDICAL SAVAN. (Vol. III, p. 59.) What great Frenchman was in his labratory on his wedding day and had to be sent for to be married? PHILOS.

Louis Pasteur, the celebrated French medical savan, noted for controling the diseas of the silkworm which had nearly destroyed Italian and French industry, and for his cures of splenic fevr in the lower animals and prevention of the same by succesiv inoculations with virus of increasing strength, as likewise for his more recent succeses with hydrofobia in like maner, was so deeply absorbed in his labratory work on his wedding day that a messenger had to go for him. The statement will be found on page 22 of the "Life and Labors of Louis Pasteur," by his son-in-law (translated,) publisht by Appleton & Co., New York, 1885. A. H., Port Hope, Ontario. TARPEIAN ROCK. (Vol. III, p. 59.) "What is the Tarpeian Rock?" What the "Dighton Rock?" and the writing seen thereon at low tide ?

GIMEL.

The Tarpeian Rock, or Tarpeja mons, is that part of the Capitoline Hill, on the western side, overhanging the river Tiber. Its present hight is about 55 feet. It was formerly higher, but time, the wear by

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