should be appended, and it would be advisable to subjoin translation of the few Latin and French citations.

Surely it is "devoutly to be wished" that the proposed little work may find "a local habitation and a name," and that the idea may not vanish into thin air "like the baseless fabric of a vision." No doubt several of your correspondents who do not think that "ignorance is bliss," and that it is "folly to be wise," would gladly lend their aid, and the constant "cry" would be "they come." As to the title, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet:" but "somewhat too much of this."

TT.

Minor Notes.

Cocker's Arithmetic.

—I have a copy of Cocker's Arithmetic, the 37th edition, 1720, with an engraved portrait of the author; respecting which there is the following manuscript note on the flyleaf:—

"Mr. Douce, of Bath, the literary antiquary and book-collector, showed me a copy of Cocker's Arithmetic, with the frontispiece cut of the author, which he said was very scarce.

"J. P., April, 1823."

Mr. Douce's copy (the first edition, 1678) is now in the possession of Mr. Rainy, an upholsterer in Bath, and is for sale. He asks 8l. 10s. for it.

CRANMORE.

The Duke of Normandy.

—The question relative to the late Duke of Normandy being the individual who was Dauphin of France, the son of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, and who was said to have died in the Temple, has never been as publicly and satisfactorily settled as it deserves. The high station and unquestionable integrity of the individuals of the Perceval family who instituted the inquiry, and in the most open manner laid the results of that inquiry before the public, constitute an unexceptionable guarantee for its genuineness and authenticity. The acute perception and accurate memory of Madame Tussaud carry great weight with them. She was asked by the writer of this paragraph, if she thought the person calling himself the Duke of Normandy was the same individual she had modelled when a child. Madame Tussaud replied with great emphasis, "I would take my oath of it for he had a peculiar formation on the neck which still remains. Besides something transpired between us, which he referred to, which was never likely to be mentioned to any one." The late Mr. Jeremy, the active and highly intelligent magistrate who presided in the court of Greenwich, and whose long experience adds value to his judgment, was of opinion that there were no traces of the impostor discovered by him during several scrutinising examinations which were held in his office, and that the members of the old French nobility who were present treated him with profound respect. He was supported through unknown channels, was twice shot at, and refused permission by the French government, though it was applied for by legal advocates of the highest standing, to bring the question before the legal tribunals. At first the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia, who knew that the Dauphin was alive, opposed the Duke of Wellington's proposal to reinstate Louis XVIII. The Empress Josephine is also said to have been aware, that the Dauphine did not die in the Temple, and is reported to have said "Ah! legitimacy is nearer than you suppose." It is an unsettled historical question worthy the attention of the historian who has time to bestow on it.

ÆGROTUS.

Anachronisms and Errors of Painters.

—Perhaps the commonest of all anachronisms of painters is that of representing St. John Baptist in a Holy Family, himself a child, adoring the infant Saviour, and carrying a slight cross or flag, with the motto "Ecce Agnus Dei." That John knew our Lord as an eminently holy man is clear frown his expostulation, "I have need to be baptized of Thee," &c.; but he himself most distinctly assures us that it was not till he saw the Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove that he knew him as the promised Messiah and Lamb of God.

I have seen an engraving from an old Master (perhaps some of your correspondents may remember the painting itself) in which the mother of Zebedee's children comes forward to beg the boon on their behalf, James and John being represented as boys of seven or eight, one on each side of her. These errors of painters are perhaps excusable when they occurred at a time when the Bible was not in everybody's hands: but what excuse can we make for artist's blunders now? The Illustrated News has lately given us prints from paintings by living artists, in one of which, "Noah's Sacrifice," a couple of fat ducks figure as clean fowl at the foot of the altar; and in the other, the Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins have increased into two sevens; neither error being apparently noticed by the editor. It is said that no sea piece, however fine, is admitted to our exhibitions if the rigging is incorrect. Would it not be quite as advisable to exclude Scripture pieces with palpable blunders?

P. P.

The Ring Finger.

—The English Book of Common Prayer orders that the ring should be put "upon the fourth finger of the woman's left hand;" and the spousal manuals of York and Salisbury assign this practical reason for the selection of the said finger:

"Quia in illo digito est quædam vena procedens usque ad cor."—Maskell, Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England, 2nd edition, Preface, page clv. note: Lond. 1846.

Aulus Gellius tells us—

"Veteres Græcos annulum habuisse in digito accepimus sinistræ manus, qui minimo est proximus. Romanos quoque homines aiunt, sic plerumque annulis usitatos. Causam esse hujus rei Appianus in libris Ægyptiacis hanc dicit: quod insectis apertisque humanis corporibus, ut mos in Ægypto fuit, quas Graeci ἀνατομὰς appellant, repertum est, nervum quendam tenuissimum ab eo uno digito, de quo diximus, ad cor hominis pergere ac pervenire. Propterea non inscitum visum esse, eum potissimum digitum tali honore decorandum, qui continens et quasi connexus esse cum principatu cordis videretur."—Noctes Atticæ, lib. x. cap. 10.

Other reasons are assigned by Macrobius; and the author of the Vulgar Errors (book iv. ch. 4.) has entirely overthrown the anatomical fiction mentioned above. Can any one give me any further information than that contained in L'Estrange or Wheatly, or in the authors to which they refer? The fourth finger of the left hand is certainly "the least active finger of the hand least used, upon which, therefore, the ring may be always in view, and least subject to be worn out:" but this is a very unromantic and utilitarian idea.

RT.

Warmington, Aug. 9. 1851.

The Od Force.

—As considerable interest appertains to the earlier manifestations of what is now termed Mesmerism, the following Note may not be altogether unworthy of a place.

The experiment, upon which a subjective proof of the agency of the power of Od is founded, as described by Dr. Herbert Mayo in the supplementary chapter to the last edition of Letters on the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions, and alluded to by R. D. H. (Vol. iii., p. 517.), is another instance of there being "nothing new under the sun." In the Bigarrures du Seigneur des Accords, first published at Paris in 1582, in the chapter "Des faux Sorciers et de leur Impostures" occurs the following