2-*s.no88.,sept.20.«56.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 



225 



tions of his letter to prove that the author had 

 discovered the property it possessed of burning 

 after it had passed throu<;h water. This fact was 

 mentioned in the second vohirae of the Chemical 

 Essays published by Dr. Watson (afterwards 

 Bishop of Llandaff) in 1767. And Mr. Samuel 

 Hughes, in his Treatise on Gas Works, London, 

 1853 (p. 9.), says: — 



" To the celebrated Dr. Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, 

 we are indebted for the first notice of the important fact, 

 that coal gas retains its inflammability after passing 

 through water into which it was allowed to ascend through 

 curved tubes." 



Dr. Clayton, having omitted to mention his 

 knowledge of this peculiarity in coal gas in his 

 letter to the Hon. Robert Boyle, it was but rea- 

 sonable to suppose that he was ignorant of it. 

 But I lind, in the Miscellanea Curiosa, London, 

 1705-6-7, in vol.iii. p. 281., 



« a letter from Mr. John Clayton, Rector of Crofton, 

 at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, to the Koyal Society, May 12, 

 1C88, giving an account of several observables iu Vir- 

 ginia," &c. — 



in which, after describing some of the severe 

 storms he had witnessed during bis residence in 

 the colony, he adds : 



" Durst I offer ray weak reasons when I write to so 

 great Masters thereof, I should here consider the nature 

 of thunder, and compare it with some sulphurous spirits 

 which I have drawn from coals, that I could no waj' 

 condense, yet were inflammable, nay, would burn after 

 they passed through water, and that seemingly fiercer, if 

 they were not overpowered therewith. I have kept of 

 this spirit a considerable time in bladders ; and tho' it 

 appeared as if they were only blown with air, yet, if I 

 let it forth, and fired it with a match or candle, it would 

 continue burning till all were spent." 



The wording of this extract resembles the pub- 

 lished portion of the communication made public 

 in 1739 so closely as to leave no doubt that they 

 were both written by the same person ; and I 

 presume it establishes beyond a doubt Dr. John 

 Clayton's claim to the discovery of'gas retaining 

 its inflammability after passing through water. 



T. H. W. 



Eichmond, Virginia, August 23, 1856. 



NATURE, AND HER MOULD, OR DIE, FOR MAN. 



When Byron, in his Monody on the Death of 

 Sheridan, lainents — 



"That Nature formed but one such man. 

 And broke the die," 



he perhaps does not mean to imply that such is 

 not the ordinary procedure of nature in her handi- 

 work, at least so far as the human race is con- 

 cerned, but that it is a matter of regret that in 

 this so successful instance she did not stamp a 

 duplicate impression. This, however, she has only 



done most rarely, and by accident as it were : 

 witness the one or two cases of mistakeable 

 identity recorded in the Causes Celebres and else- 

 where, — exceptions which serve at once to illus- 

 trate and prove her rule to the contrary. Yet the 

 eloquent egotist, J. J. Rousseau, seems to fancy 

 that men in general are made by the dozen, while 

 he, as to be paralleled by none but himself, is tiie 

 result of an experiment of questionable expe- 

 diency in the way of separate manufacture : 



" Si la nature a bien ou mal fait de briser le moule 

 dans lequel elle m'a jete', c'est ce dont on ne peut juger 

 qu'aprfes m'a voir lu." — Les Confessions, chap. i. 



The figure, whatever it -may imply, has been a 

 favourite one with eulogists. The biographer of a 

 comedian who amused the public in his day not 

 less successfully than Sheridan winds up with — 



" L'on peut dire sans hyperbole, que la nature, aprbs 

 I'avoir fait, en cassa la moule." — La Vie de Scaramouche, 

 12mo., 1690, p. 107. 



Again, I find it in Ariosto : 



"Non b un si bello in tante altre persone, 

 Natura il fece, e poi roppa la stampa." 



Orl. Furioso, cant. x. stanz. 84. 



and, returning to the north, in the work of our 

 ancient Scottish poet : 



" Her arms are lang, her shoulders braid, 

 Her middil gent and small : 

 The mold is lost wherein was maed 

 This a per se of all." 



Alexander Montgomery's Poems. 



Here my memory fails me ; perhaps others may 

 be able to indicate an earlier, if not the original, 

 use of the figure. William Bates. 



Birmingham. 



DOUCBAHA. 



Notes by F. Douce in his copy of Thos. Green- 

 hill's Ne/cpoKjjceia, or the Art of Embalming, 4to., 

 Lond., 1705: 



"A Copy in Longman's Suppl. Catal., 1817, No. 9503, 

 at 1/. 16s. Query, if Mr. Greenhill was aware that his 

 subject had been already discussed in Penicher, Traitd 

 des Embaumemens selon les anciens et les modernes, Paris, 

 1699, 12mo. ? 



» There is a receipt for embalming bodies in Jordan, 

 Recueil de LittSrature, p. 22. 



" See some good remarks on embalming in Voyages de 

 M. du Mont, torn. ii. lettre ix. : 



" * liCS Rois d'Egypte et de Syrie 



Vouloient qu'on embaumat leurs corps 

 Pour rester plus long-terns morts : 



Quelle folic ! 

 Avant que de nos corps 

 Notre ame soit partie 

 Avec du vin embaumons-nous 

 Pour rester plus long-terns en vie.' 

 *» It has been ingeniously imagined that the practice 

 among the earlv Christians of erab;ilming the bodies in 



