114 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Aug. 11. 1855. 



Whiskey (Vol. xii., p. 59.). — Mr. What asks 

 whether the word whiskey can come from the 

 Hindu poistee. He is informed that it is derived 

 from the Gaelic ooshk-a-pai (so pronounced), sig- 

 nifying water and health. 



C. Mansfield Ingleby. 



Birmingham. 



Book-Plates (Vol. xii., p. 35.). — I most willingly 

 comply with the request of your correspondent 

 D. P., that I should describe the book-plate to 

 which I called his attention In a former Number. 

 There is, as he suggests, a helmet, wreath, crest, 

 and mantle, with very flowing and profuse orna- 

 mentation, the latter surrounding the entire 

 shield. The arms are. Ermine, on a pale sable, 

 three martlets. The crest, a leopard sejant, with 

 a spear through the neck. Underneath, on a 

 flowing scroll, the motto " Pro Republica." And 

 below thi:<, "Gilbert Nicholson, of Balrath, In the 

 county of Meath, Esq., 1669." My heraldic 

 knowledge not being very great, I am not sure 

 that my description will be quite intelligible, but 

 it Is the best I can give. G. R. M. 



Ham. 



Method of taking out Ink (Vol. xii., p. 29.). — 

 In a curious old Fi-ench book, with Innumerable 

 receipts for all kinds of objects, 1 find many for 

 taking stains of Ink out of paper. Among them 

 it is asserted that such stains may be removed 

 with verjuice, sorrel juice, or eau seconde. Other 

 recipes run thus : 



1. Take e,qual quantities of lapis calaminaris, 

 common salt, and rock alum, boil them in white 

 wine for half an hour In a new pipkin. This will 

 at once remove stains of ink from paper or parch- 

 ment. 



2. Distil equal quantities of nitre and vitriol ; 

 dip a sponge in the liquid and pass it over the 

 ink, wliicli will be at once removed. 



3. Distil equal quantities of sulphur and pow- 

 dered saltpetre for the same purpose. 



4. Rub the stain of ink with a little ball made 

 of alkali and sulphur. F. C. H. 



Quadrature of the Circle (Vol. xii., p. 57.). — 

 The self-sufficiency of persons who delude them- 

 selves Into the belief that they have squared the 

 circle, is not confined to modern times. In 1727 

 Dr. Mathulon, who had published in Paris the 

 year preceding two pamphlets concerning the 

 quadrature of the circle and perpetual motion, 

 printed at Lyons the following curious announce- 

 ment to geometricians and philosophers : 



" M. Mathulon, doctor of physic, who pretends to have 

 demonstrated the quadrature of the circle and perpetual 

 motion, in two pamphlets printed in 1726, being surprised 

 at the silence of the learned thereupon, und nevertheless 

 fully convinced of the reality of his discoveries, has depo- 

 sited a sum of three thousand livres to be paid to any one 

 No. 302.] 



who shall publicly demonstrate the falsity of his quadra- 

 ture of the circle; and he offers to lay a wager of ten 

 thousand livres against the first gainsayer who will 

 accept of it, as to his demonstration of perpetual motion, 

 which he maintains to be receivable. He has chosen the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences to determine that affair, and 

 will stand to their decision." 



W.J. 



Russell Institution. 



American Christian and Surnames (Vol. xll., 

 p. 40.). — Add, on the authority of a person 

 well acquainted with Philadelphia, the following : 

 Preserved Fish ; Return Jonathan Meggs. The 

 story of this odd Christian name runs, that Jona- 

 than Meggs, having proposed for the object of his 

 affections, was refused, but as he departed the 

 fair one relented and called from the window, 

 " Return Jonathan Meggs," whereupon he did 

 return, and the first-born child was so baptized 

 In memory of the event. A legal firm In Phila- 

 delphia bore the ominous title of " Katchum and 

 Cheatum." The unfortunate owners of the names 

 were compelled to dissolve partnership. O. *. 



To your next batch of curiosities of this kind 

 you might add the comical conjuncture of Chris- 

 tian and Surname which occvirred some years ago, 

 when Mr. Preserved Fish managed the Secretariat 

 of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, Boston. 



J. O. 



"Donniwell" (Vol. xl., p. 465.). — The word 

 Donni, or Donny, In Donnlwell, is merely the old 

 Keltic vocable don (otherwise on qy an), water, 

 with the diminutive y, and signifies the little 

 stream or brook. The word is still retained in 

 the name of the rivers Don In Yorkshire, the Don 

 which falls Into the sea at Aberdeen, another Don 

 In county Antrim, Ireland, and in the Don In 

 Russia. Hence, too, the Keltic name for the 

 Danube, Donau, latinised Danublus. 



There is also Donnyland in Essex ; and the two 

 rivers Oney In Salop and Herts, Honiton or 

 Onyton In Devon, and the Uny in Cornwall, are 

 all different forms of the same root. 



I might offer many other illustrations, but will 

 refer only to the same word In the primitive 

 nomenclature of Palestine ; the Dan, which, with 

 the later Hebrew prefix Jor (river), we now, by a 

 double pleonasm, call the river Jordan. 



W. L. N. 



Bath. 



Etymology of the Word ''Chess" (Vol. xii., 

 p. 65.). — For the honour of this noble game I 

 should be rather disposed to think that Pezron, 

 to support the derivation of the word chess from 

 Sacaj, has given a wrong meaning to the latrun- 

 culorum Indus, or the thief's game, of the ancients. 

 The game of latrunculi seems to have been much 

 of the same nature as the modern chess. The 



