11 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»dS. N»62., Mar. 7.'67. 



extract. The doctor suggests the singular idea of 

 "" transporting from distant countries those delicate 

 plants which are unable to sustain the inclemency 

 of the weather at sea," by burying them in quick- 

 silver ! and proceeds : 



" I have seen an instance of common flies preserved in 

 a manner somewhat similar. They had been drowned in 

 Madeira wine, apparently about the time when it was 

 bottled in Virginia, to be sent hither (to London). At 

 the opening of one of the bottles, at the house of a friend 

 where I then was, three drowned flies fell into the rirst 

 glass that was filled. Having heard it remarked that 

 drowned flies were capable of being revived by the rays 

 of the sun, I proposed making the experiment upon these : 

 they were therefore exposed to the sun upon a sieve, 

 which had been employed to strain them out of the wine. 

 In less than three hours, two of them began by degrees 

 to recover life. They commenced by some convulsive 

 motions of the thighs, and at length they raised them- 

 selves upon their legs, wiped their eyes with their fore- 

 feet, beat and brushed their wings with their hind-feet, 

 and soon after began to fly, finding themselves in Old 

 England, without knowing how they came thither. The 

 third continued lifeless till sunset, when, losing all hopes 

 of him, he was thrown awa3'. 



♦' I wish it were possible, from this instance, to invent 

 a method of embalming drowned persons, in such a man- 

 ner that they may be recalled to life at any period, how- 

 ever distant ; for having a very ardent desire to see and 

 observe the state of America an hundred years hence, I 

 should prefer to an ordinary death, the being immersed 

 in a cask of Madeira wine, with a few friends till that 

 time, to be then recalled to life by the solar warmth of 

 my dear native country. But since in all probability we 

 live in an age too early and too near the infancy of science, 

 to hope to see such an art brought in our time to its per- 

 fection, I must for the present content mj'self with the 

 treat, which you are so kind as to promise me, of the re- 

 surrection of a fowl or a turkey-cock." 



RoBEKT S. Salmon. 



Newcastle-on Tj'ne. 



The following account of the resuscitation of a 

 scorpion, after having been drowned in spirit, may 

 prove interesting to Henbt T. Riley, and may 

 be the means of inducing some of your numerous 

 foreign correspondents, who may have no diffi- 

 culty in procuring other specimens, to make fur- 

 ther experiments in respect to the resuscitation 

 of insects. 



■ Some years since I possessed a small scorpion, 

 procured from amongst logwood brought over in 

 a vessel from Honduras. Having kept the insect 

 for some weeks, and becoming tired of my strange 

 pet, I determined to destroy it, and, with this in- 

 tention, it was put into a tumbler containing 

 spirit. After some minutes had elapsed, and the 

 scorpion appearing to be dead, it was taken out of 

 the spirit, and put upon the warm mantel-piece to 

 dry, as it was desirable that the specimen should 

 be preserved. On the following morning the 

 scorpion had disappeared, and, after some search, 

 it was discovered in a corner of the room, cer- 

 tainly none the worse, but apparently much the 

 better, for its immersion. It was again put into 



spirit, and having been kept there for half an 

 hour, it had apparently ceased to exist. Upon 

 being taken out of the tumbler it was quite soft 

 and limp ; but, upon being put into a box, and 

 kept in a warm place, it again revived, and was 

 very active and angry. The spirit made use of 

 was ordinary whiskey. The hody of the scorpion 

 was completely immersed, but the tail was not so ; 

 and I noticed that, as the insect remained at the 

 bottom of the tumbler, the tail gradually drooped 

 over towards the back, but that immediately the 

 poison-point came in contact with the surface of 

 the spirit, the scorpion appeared to suffer much 

 pain, and the tail was jerked violently out of the 

 liquid. This occurred several times, but as the 

 insect became exhausted, its eflforts to retain the 

 tail above the spirit were less frequent, and at 

 length ceased entirely. Fras. Brent. 



Kingston-upon-Hull. 



I never observed the fact of drowned flies being 

 resuscitated, but I have often when a boy prac- 

 tised a similar experiment on fleas. When caught, 

 they were thrown into a basin of water ; where, 

 after struggling some time on the surface, they 

 would sink to the bottom, and lie there motionless 

 and apparently dead. It was the plan to leave 

 them so for several minutes, probably a quarter of 

 an hour ; and then take them out, and lay them 

 on a dry cloth. In a short time they used to 

 revive invariably. AVith regard to Henry T. 

 Riley's experiments with flies, it would be de- 

 sirable to know whether they actually sunk to the 

 bottom ; for if they did not, their drowning might 

 be only partial. My fleas sunk, and showed no 

 signs of life till, some little time after, they were 

 taken out of the water. Of course good care was 

 taken that they never finally escaped with life. 



F.C.H. 



As flies drown in consequence of the liquid 

 stopping up the breathing holes in the abdomen, 

 it is easy to conceive that any dry absorbent 

 powder, by collecting to itself the moisture, and 

 so opening the breathing pores, would contribute 

 to the restoration of insect life, and that the 

 warmth of the sun would make the process more 

 rapid, and therefore more efficacious. P. P. 



LOLLARDS, ORIGIN OP THE TERM. 



(2"'^ S. ii. 329. 459.) 

 It will tend to elucidate this subject somewhat, 

 if it can be ascertained with any degree of cer- 

 tainty what was the family name of Walter Lol- 

 lard, the founder of the sect called " Lollards." 

 With this view I have selected the testimony of 

 various writers who have given accounts of LoU 



