116
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. ix. FEB. 7, wu.
quite likely to have been true. Our Alleyne
in 1733 says the fat is very emollient, but
rarely used. Many other medicines were
obtained from the human body Lemery
enumerates a dozen or more but most of
them are too nasty for mention. Mummy
and the human skull were, like human fat,
official in our own country until the middle
of the eighteenth century. Those skulls
are said to have been most prized which had
fallen from the gibbet and had acquired a
little moss (Usnea Cranii humani in the
dispensatories of the time). The London
market was supplied chiefly from Ireland ;
the price varied from eight to eleven shillings
according to the size of the skull, but (adds
the authority quoted by Pomet) those with
plenty of moss made fancy prices.
C. C. B.
Lemery gives a summary of the medicinal uses to which the various parts of " Homo " were applied. Bechler, in 'Parnassus Medi- cinalis,' 1663, quoted in Peter's 'History of Pharmacy,' says :
"Human fat properly rubbed into the skin restores weak limbs. The wearing of a belt of human skin facilitates labour and mitigates its pain."
TOM JONES. [L. L. K. thanked for reply.]
APHRA BERN'S COMEDIES (11 S. viii. 469; ix. 39). May not the reference be to ' The Preacher's Travels ' of John Cartwright of Magdalen College, Oxford, first published in 1611, and later reprinted ?
Two important papers on Mrs. Behn have recently been published by Dr. Ernest Bernbaum of Harvard University. One, called ' Mrs. Behn's " Oroonoko," ' is printed in ' Kittredge Anniversary Papers,' 1913, pp. 419-33. The other, called ' Mrs. Behn's Biography a Fiction,' is printed in Publica- tions of the Modern Language Association of America, xxviii. 432-53.
ALBERT MATTHEWS.
Boston, Mass.
THE GREAT EASTERN, THE FIRST OF THE LEVIATHANS (11 S. viii. 506; ix. 55). There is a curious error at the first refer- ence, the word " casting" being substituted for casing. The funnel was surrounded by a water jacket, that is, an external casing through which w r ater was circulated to pre- vent radiation of heat from the funnel. By some mischance the outlet of this jacket became closed, so that it was practically converted into a boiler without a safety valve. As a necessary consequence the casing exploded.
An illustrated account of the breaking up
of the great ship appeared in The Engineer,
30 Oct., 1891, p. 356. There is, or was, an
interesting collection of cuttings from the-
illustrated newspapers, &c., relating ta
the early history of the Great Eastern in
the library of the Institution of Naval Archi-
tects. The Science Museum at South
Kensington contains a block model, a rigged!
model, and coloured drawings of the Great
Eastern, together with models (workable)
of both paddle and screw engines.
R. B. P.
WILLIAM PARSONS : LIFE OR HORSE- GUARDS (US. ix. 46). MR. PIERPOINT is right in supposing that " private man " means private soldier. See * N.E.D.' under ' Private ' :
" We lost 6 private men. and had 15 wounded." London Gazette, 1691, No. 2629.
" Application on behalf of a private man that
had deserted from an independent company just as they were embarking for North America." Pegge,. 1796, 'Anon.' (1809), 164.
"All the officers, non-commissioned officers, drummers, and private men who may be at home are to be accounted for."' Regulations and OrcU Army,' 1844, 176.
A. GWYTHER.
Of course, " private man " means trooper, William Parsons was gazetted as an ensign in Cholmondeley's Regiment (48th, not 47th) on 23 Jan., 1740/41.
ASTLEY TERRY, Major-General.
WORDS AND PHRASES IN * LORNA DOONE r (11 S. viii. 427, 514 ; ix. 15, 75)." Capias " is a law term, and simply means " take " or " that you take," referring in this instance to the ingredients used by " good Aunt Jane- for stuffing a curlew with onion."
RICHD. WELFORD.
Newcastle upon-Tyne.
KING'S LYNN AS A SPA (11 S. ix. 27). The spa was at Gaywood, about a mile north of King's Lynn. I am not sura whether there are any remains of the build- ings, but the name is preserved in Spring Farm. G. T. PILCHER.
" TROD," " TRODE," PAST TENSE OF "TREAD " (11 S. ix. 27). O. F. Emerson's- ' Middle English Reader,' New York, 1905,. contains at p. 62, 1. 3, an example of trode* in 1. 423 of the ' Debate of the Body and the Soul,' a poem which Emerson says was written in the second half of the thirteenth century, though he does not give the date- of MS. Laud 108, from which his text is taken.
