2»<> S. X Oct. 13. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



299 



dent, the fragments are in English. I presume 

 the "Latin Pi'ayer Book" is the Portiforium in 

 tisum Surum, 4to.,— the only Latin book, according 

 to Johnson's Typographia, printed by Grafton & 

 Whitchurch in the year 1544. I have taken for 

 granted the book is in its original binding ; be- 

 cause, if otherwise, the fly-leaves would probably 

 be more modern. Indeed, I am rather inclined to 

 suspect that the binding is not as old as the book : 

 for there does not appear to have been any book 

 with the above title, either in Latin or English, 

 produced by any of our early English printers. 



John Williams. 

 Amo's Court. 



This is a well-known and esteemed Catholic 

 Prayer-book. It was compiled, under the title of 

 Paradisus Animce, by Jame^ Merlon, who, from 

 Horst, the place of 4iis birth, was called Horstius. 

 The first edition appeared at Cologne in 1644, the 

 second in 1716. The author died in the same 

 year that the first edition was printed. An Eng- 

 lish translation, entitled The Paradise of the Sold, 

 was made by T. M., and published in London in 

 1720. The only other edition with which I am 

 acquainted was printed at Walton in 1771. I 

 possess the second edition of the Latin, and both 

 editions of the English. The fly-leaves mentioned 

 by Tau, as found in a book printed in 1544, I can 

 no otherwise account for than by supposing them 

 to have been inserted at a subsequent binding of 

 the book. For I never heard of any work with 

 the above title older than this Prayer-book of 

 Horstius. F. C. H. 



This is a well-known Roman Catholic book of 

 devotion. The title is Paradisus Animce Chris- 

 tiancB ; the author. Jacobus Merlo Horstius. A 

 new edition was printed at Mechlin in 1840. It 

 has been translated into English from the original 

 Latin, and is easily to be procured. J. G. 



Exon. 



Pun (2°'* S. x. 248.) — I have never met with 

 any satisfactory derivation of this word, which 

 seems to have puzzled lexicographers a little. 

 Mr. Robinson may take his choice of the follow- 

 ing as the most probable etymologies : — Fr. pointe 

 (TuSit. punctum), the point of the witticism, says Ri- 

 chardson, arising from the use, &c. Nares (Glos- 

 sary) gixes pun from the Saxon, to pound, to strike. 

 To illustrate the use of the word in this sense he 

 tells us of a Stafibrdshire servant, who, when he 

 heard his mistress stamp with her foot to signal 

 his attendance, would say : " Hark ! Madam's 

 punning." " Perhaps," he adds, " it means to beat 

 and hammer upon the same word." F. Phillott. 



The derivation of this word has been given to 

 the Anglo- Sax. Punian, to beat or pound, a beating 

 upon words ; although it is probable that it more 

 immediately may be deduced from the French 



word point, or Latin pundum. Todd's edition of 

 Johnson, however, humorously enough suggests 

 our deriving it from our English word fun (Sax. 

 ]>8e^^n), by the mutation of f into p. No very 

 early instances of the use of this word bejng ad- 

 duced, it is possible that the word is a coinage of 

 the last century. Ithuriel. 



In a late discussion at which I was present re- 

 lative to the derivation of the word pun, I quieted 

 the opponents by the following lines, which I hope 

 you will agree entirely settle the question : — 



" Why a Pun to define do you make so much pother? 

 'Tis but to say one thing, while meaning another: 

 And the truth of this axiom, the way to decide is, 

 • By rememb'ring its origin — • Punica Fides.' " 



D. S. 

 "Le Bureau d'Esprit" (2"« S. x. 210.) — The 

 author of this comedy is, according to Barbier 

 (Diet, des Outrages Anonymes, etc.), "le chevalier 

 de Rutlige," or, according to Querard (La France 

 Litleraire), " le chevalier baronnet Jean Jacques 

 Rutlidge, ne en 1743." Querard adds in a note, 

 " C'est une satire contre Madame Geoffi-in et sa 

 societe." I am sorry that I can trace no farther 

 particulars respecting the author ; but if Fitz- 

 HOPKiNS will consult the article " Marie-Therese 

 Geoffrin," ill the Biographie Universelle, he will 

 find mention made of the work, and a very inter- 

 esting account of that lady and of her reunions. 



Dublin. 



Spiders' Webs (2"« S. x. 138.) — In Ben Jon- 

 son's Staple of News, Act II. Sc. 4., Almanack 

 says of Old Pennyboy (as a skit upon his penu- 

 riousness), that he 



" Sweeps down no cobwebs here, 

 But sells 'em for cut fingers; and the spiders, 

 As creatures rear'd of dust, and cost him nothing, ' 

 To fat old ladies' monkeys." 



Ache. 

 Thanks to "N. & Q.," I have recently been able 

 immediately to stop the continual bleeding of my 

 little daughter's leech-wounds by the application 

 of spiders' webs. When all the usual styptics had 

 failed, I bethought myself of my weekly visitor 

 and his good advice, and the result was as happy 

 as could be anticipated. The webs, when well 

 pressed together in the form of a plaster, stick 

 till the wound is healed. J. H. van Lennep. 



Zeyst, near Utrecht, Sept. 24, 1860. 



Versiera (2""^ S. ix. 80.) — It was not Maria 

 Agnesi who gave this name to the curve in ques- 

 tion. In Colson's translation of her work (vol. i. 

 p. 223.), the curve is described as that " which is 

 vulgarly called the Witch." Why it should be so 

 called, I cannot imagine : the curve has no re- 

 markable properties, and nobody can do any par- 

 ticular mathematical conjuration with it. The 

 equation of the curve is ^^.r = a^ (a — x). I can- 



