oad s. N» 64, Jan. 10. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



35 



being intended to keep secret the death of the 

 prince, this mode of proceeding would have been 

 altogether fruitless. J- B. 



OKGAN TUNING. 



(2»'i S. ii. 190.) 



Pkofessoe De MoBG AN inquires, 1st. If organs 

 are tuned by beats ? 2nd. If so, what tables are 

 used ? 3rd. Is Dr. Smith's account of the beats 

 approved ? 4th. Are the tables in use dedifCed 

 from these formula of Dr. Smith ? 5th. If not, 

 who else has written on the subject ? 



The Phofessor writes that he has looked into 

 the work by Hopkins and Rimbault, but found 

 nothing to his purpose. Mr. R. W. Dixon replies 

 that organs are tuned by equal temperament, ou 

 account of the imperfection of the scale of nature (!), 

 and informs the Professor he must tune "all 

 his fifths two beats short of the truth." Mr. 

 Dixon claims General Thompson in support of his 

 theory, but the General is an advocate for the 

 true, in place of any set of artificial mean sounds 

 of the gamut. 



In reply to the Professor's Queries, I answer : 

 1. The beat, by which I presume the Professor 

 means the wave resulting from two sounds heard 

 together, but not vibrating in any true ratio, is of 

 the same service in tuning now as it was centuries 

 ago, being the act of nature marking the disagree- 

 ment of two sounds heard simultaneously. 2. No 

 tables are used in practice, organ tuners and 

 pianoforte tuners trusting to their ears and ex- 

 perience. 3. I believe the notions of the former 

 Master of Trinity to be untrue, and his ratios of 

 the scale contrary to nature, and therefore place 

 no reliance on his deductions. I have never heard 

 of any one adopting his formulae. 4. There are no 

 tables in use that I am aware of. 5. Mr. Emerson 

 gives a mode of calculating the beat differing from 

 Dr. Smith ; and Mr. John Farey, after giving Smith 

 and Emerson, adds three other methods of his own 

 invention. H. J. Gauhtlett. 



respecting certain theosophists and MrSTICS. 

 (2°i S. ii. 487.) 

 The following particulars may be acceptable to 



EiRIONNACH. 



1. Cjelius Rhodiginus. a work under the 

 title of Lodovicus Ccelius in Horatium was pub- 

 lished at Basle in 1580. 



2. Thomas Wlllis, M.D. I can scarcely be- 

 lieve that EiRIONNACH alludes to Dr. Willis, whom 

 Wood calls the most celebrated physician of his 

 time; but I can find no other who wrote De 

 Animu Brutorum. He was the son of Thomas 



Willis of Henxsey, co. Berks, by Rachel, dau. of 

 Mr. William Howell, and was born at Great Bed- 

 win, CO. Wilts, Jan. 27, 1621. He was educated 

 at Christ's Coll., Oxford, and became B.A. in 

 1639, M.A. in 1642, B.M. in 1646, and M.D. in 

 1660. In 1660 also he was appointed Sedleian 

 Professor of Natural Philosophy. He died of 

 pleuritis, Nov. 11, 1675. See his life in the Bio- 

 graphia Britannica, Wood's Athence, Biog. Med., 

 Haller's Bib. Med. 



His works are chiefly on medical subjects. He 

 is, however, the author of — 



" Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae. Oxford, 1653, 1664, 

 1674; Leyden, 1726, 8vo.; Hamb. 1672." 



The only works he wrote in English are, — 



" A Plain and Easie Method for preserving (by God's 

 Blessing) those that are well from the Infection of the 

 Plague. 1666." 



And a collection of receipts selected from his 

 medical works. 



The whole of his works were translated by R. 

 L'Estrange, and published in folio, 1679. Also, — 



"Opera Omnia Willisii. Genev. 1676; Lugd. 1681, 

 2 vols. ; cura G. Blasii, Amst. 1682 ; Venet. 1720, fol." 



6. Thomas Taylor was born in London, May 

 15, 1758, and was at an early age sent to St. 

 Paul's School. He was afterwards instructed by 

 the Rev. Mr. Worthington, with a view to prepare 

 him for the ministry. But pecuniary difficulties 

 compelled him to relinquish this plan, and to ac- 

 cept a junior clerkship in Messrs. Lubbock's 

 banking-house. After enduring great trials, he 

 was appointed Assistant-Secretary to the Society 

 for the Encouragement of Arts and Commerce. 

 Here he made acquaintance with many literary 

 and scientific men, by whose assistance he printed 

 his works. The Duke of Norfolk printed Plato, 

 and for some reason kept nearly the whole edition 

 locked up in his house, where it remained till his 

 death. Taylor died Nov. 1, 1835. In Knight's 

 Penny Cyclopcedia, besides his life, is a list of his 

 thirty-eight published works. J. Cyprian Rust. 



Norwich. 



Spiders Webs (2°'' S. ii. 450. 517.) — Arachnk 

 asks whether any one has given a description of the 

 mode by which the webs of spiders are made, &c. 

 In answer to that, I beg to say there is a very 

 pleasing account of the spider and its habits 

 in Goldsmith's Animated Nature, published by 

 Blackie & Son, of Glasgow, 1840, and edited by 

 Alex. Whitelaw ; but as it is not so profuse as it 

 should have been, and as I can furnish one little 

 bit of information, and which is, indeed, a clue to 

 the whole, I may lae allowed to offer it. 



When quite a young man I was very anxiously 



