Oct. 13. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



289 



If I mistake not, the verses were written by 

 " Master Blotch," and shown up by him as an 

 exercise, or rather " imposition," to his school- 

 master, " Mr. John McOrson, Master of Arts." 

 But certainly he would not have conciliated that 

 severe pedagogue, if he had carried up the lines 

 as they are printed in " l^T. & Q." With the first 

 I do not know that any fault is to be found ; but 

 the second is obviously corrupt. Trusting merely 

 to my own recollection of what I have some sus- 

 picion was one of the first books I ever possessed 

 — a recollection that has not been very recently 

 refreshed — I should have written — 

 " Et P. Q. periwig, pendens like tail of a dead pig."- 



Now that I have done otherwise, I am much in- 

 clined to think that I should have written " pen- 

 dent," which is certainly more euphonious. I 

 think the title of the book was The Histoi-y of 

 Little Jack ; but I am not sure that I am not 

 confounding together two different books. It was 

 in form, and the manner of printing, and the gilt 

 paper cover, a child's story-book ; but something 

 gave me an impression that it was a personal 

 satire, and that " John McOrson, M. A.," was 

 some well-known schoolmaster of the time when it 

 was published — perhaps fifty or sixty years ago. 



N. B. 



These lines, quoted more or less correctly by 

 your correspondent X., are to be found in the 

 Comic Latin Grammar, a volume published anony- 

 mously, about twenty years since. J. B. 



Prestwich. 



Half a century has passed since I read over 

 many times the bustling and well told tale far 

 which X. inquires, but my schoolboy habits then 

 were not to copy the title of the book. It was a 

 well told tale of the ill-usage of George, a fine 

 spirited lad, at school, on account of his being the 

 son of a trumpeter, and the verses inquired for 

 were shown up as a theme of nonsense-verses by 

 one of his persecutors. The severe flagellations 

 by the cruel and partial pedagogue, and the con- 

 sequent "barring out," were well pourtrayed, and 

 made a lasting impression on my youthful mind. 

 Happily for the rising generation, the flogging of 

 a whole school to find out who committed a fault, 

 is now only a subject for tradition. Probably 

 such tales as that now inquired for were beneficial 

 in their day. E.D. 



CONNOR OR O'Connor's " history ojp poi-and." 



(Vol. xiL, p. 2Q7.) 



I have great pleasure in supplying Alpha with 



more correct particulars respecting my kinsman, 



Dr. Bernard O'Connor, who was, as has already 



No. 311.] ^ 



been noticed," born in the county of Kerry, in 

 1666, where he received his earlier education. 

 The penal laws then in existence against Catho- 

 lics compelled him to visit Paris, in order more 

 fully to carry out the study of medicine, to which 

 his tastes in early life led him, and in which he 

 was destined to excel. Dr. O'Connor graduated 

 in due time at the University of Montpelier, and 

 was soon afterwards, as a reward for his profes- 

 sional and scientific acquirements, chosen as 

 member of the Academy of Medicine of Paris. In 

 Paris he became acquainted with two sons of the 

 Chancellor of Poland, who proposed to him to ac- 

 company them to Poland. Making a tour through 

 many of the Germanic and Italian states with his 

 Polish proteges, the young Kerryman arrived -in 

 Poland in the year 1690. Soon after his arrival 

 in Poland my kinsman was chosen physician to 

 King John III., better known in history as John 

 Sobieski, who was now advanced in life. In 1694, 

 Sobieski's daughter married the Elector of Bavaria, 

 who solicited the services of the young physician, 

 and whom he ultimately accompanied to Brussels, 

 and never again returned to Warsaw. In 1695 

 O'Connor quitted the service of the Bavarian 

 queen and came to England. The greater part of 

 this year was spent at Oxford, where he delivered 

 a series of lectures explanatory of his " Corpus 

 Rationale Medlcum; or of his new and compen- 

 dious Method, Chemical and Anatomical, for under- 

 standing the fficonomia Animalis, the nature of 

 Diseases, and the Materia Medica." The winter 

 following was spent in London, similarly occupied, 

 and during the summer of 1696 he was engaged at 

 Cambridge, " where he instructed some gentle- 

 men in the science of chemistry." Soon after his 

 arrival in England Dr. O'Connor was admitted a 

 member of the College of Physicians of London, 

 and a Fellow of the Royal Society. During his 

 stay at Oxford he published some Latin treatises ; 

 entitled Dissertationes Medico-Physicce. In 1696, 

 with the assistance of Mr. Savage, he wrote his 

 History of Poland, which went through several 

 editions; and in 1697 he wrote his singular treatise 

 Evangelium Medici: sen Medicina Mystica, 4'C,, 

 all of which I possess. Harris, in his edition of 

 Ware, mentions another book that was written by 

 Dr. O'Connor, the name of which I now forget. 

 In a letter to a friend at Oxford, dated Nov. 2, 

 1695, he says, "and I hope I shall be able in a 

 few years to publish a Latin Treatise of the Prin^ 

 ciples of Physic and of the (Economia Animalis" 

 Whether this book was ever published I do not 

 know. Dr. O'Connor was in the enjoyment of an 

 extensive practice in London, which he did not 

 long enjoy, for he died of fever at Bow Street, 

 Covent Garden, on the 31st of October, 1698, ia 

 the thirty-second year of his age. Besides the 

 authors already referred to in "N.& Q." (Vol. xii., 

 p. 207.), farther particulars of Dr. O'Connor's life 



