2»'i S. No 102., Pec. 12. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



471 



markable instance in which these principles were 

 exemplified many years ago. The book contain- 

 ing the account is, — Some Letters, containing aii 

 Account of what seemed most Remarkable in Sicit- 

 zerland, Italy, Sfc. Written by G. Burnet, D.D., 

 to T. H. R. B. [the Hon. Robert Boyle], Rot- 

 terdam, 1686. As probably very few of your 

 readers possess this work, I shall venture to give 

 an extract fi'om it. 



Burnet tells us that at Geneva there was a 

 Mr. Gody, a minister of S. Gervais, who had a 

 daughter, at that time sixteen years old. When 

 a child, she began to speak, but lost her hearing, 

 and of course the power of speech : — 



" But this child," says he, " hath by observing the 

 motions of the mouths and lips of others, acquired so 

 manj' words, that out of these she hath formed a sort of 

 jargon in which she can hold conversation Avhole days 

 with those that can speak her own language. I could 

 understand some of her words, but could not comprehend 

 a period, for it seemed to be a confused noise : she knows 

 nothing that is said to her unless she seeth the motion of 

 their mouths that speak to her; so that in the night, 

 when it is necessary to speak to her, they must light a 

 candle. Only one thing appeared the strangest part of 



. the whole narration : she hath a sister with whom she 

 has practised her language more than with any other; 

 and in the night, by laying her hand on her sister's 

 mouth, she can perceive by that what she saies, and so 

 can discourse witli her in the night. It is true her 

 mother told me that this did not go far, and that she 

 found out only some short period in this manner, but it 

 did not hold out very long: thus this young woman, 

 without any pains taken on her, hath meerlj' by a natural 



■ sagacitj', found out a method of holding discourse, that 

 doth in a great measure lessen the misery of her deafness. 

 I examined this matter critically, but only the sister was 

 not present, so that I could not see how the conversation 

 past between them in the dark." — Pp. 248 — 9. 



There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of 

 this statement ; but I wish to append a Query to 

 this Note, which, after all, may only betray my 

 ignorance. Are there any cases of well-defined 

 and systematic efforts to teach deaf-mutes not only 

 to speak, but to understand what is said to them, 

 on the principles of Professor Kilian ? B. H. C. 



Forks. — Leandro Alberti, in Urhis Venetce 

 Descriptio, 16mo., Venice, 1626, mentions, at 



6 221., the sister of the Emperor Nicephorus 

 otoniates, and wife of the doge Domenlco Silvio, 

 1083 — 96, as too dainty to touch her food with 

 her fingers. " Uxorem is habebat nobilem e Con- 

 stantinopoll, tantas ambitionis — cibum non digitis 

 Bed furcillis aureis caperet," &c. J. W. P. 



Sea Anemone. — The discovery of this interesting 

 phenomenon is to be referred to the year 1764 

 and the Island of S. Lucia : — 



" An animal flower," so it is described ; " at first sight 

 beantifol flowers, of a bright shining colour, and pretty 



nearly resembling our single marygold, only that their 

 tint is more lively ; on a nearer approach of a hand or in- 

 strument, they retire out of sight. In the middle of the 

 disk are four brown filaments, which move round a kind 

 of yellow petals ; these legs reunite like pincers to seize 

 their prey ; and the petals close to shut it up, so that it 

 cannot escape." 



Mackenzie Walcott, M. A. 



Fly-leaf Scribbling: — In an old Bible : — 

 " Ralph Russell of Otley [Suffolk], a.d. 1645. 

 " Ralph Russell owe this booke ; 

 The Lord in heaven uppon him looke, 

 With his favour and his grace, 

 Y* he in heaven maye have a dwellinge place. 



" Da tua dum tua sunt : post mortem tunc tua non 

 sunt. 



" This Bible was Mr. John Causton's booke ; but he 

 gaue it to Ralph Russell his godsonn, both franke and 

 free, that when he is dead he may remember me." 



Mr. John Cawston, B.D., is mentioned in the 

 MS. account of Suffolk families attributed to 

 Reyce : — 



" He was sometime of the schoole of Walsingham, and 

 had been fellow and president of Bennet Coll. in Cam- 

 bridge, and afterward rector of Otley, and rector and 

 patron of Clopton. He died 1631, in the 64"' yeare of 

 his age." 



S. W. Rix. 



Beccles. 



Bogus. — Please transfer to the pages of " N. & 

 Q." the following extract from the Boston (U. S.) 

 Historical Magazine, — a work on the same plan 

 as " N. & Q." relating entirely to the Antiquities, 

 Biography, and History of America, edited with 

 great ability, and contributed to by many of the 

 first literary men of America : — 



" The Boston Daily Courier of June 12, 1857, in re- 

 porting a case before the Superior Court, in this citj', 

 gives the following as the origin of this word : — 



" ' Incidentally in his charge, the learned Judge took oc- 

 casion to manifest his abhorrence of the use of slang phrases 

 in the course of judicial proceedings, by saying that he did 

 not know the meaning of the phrase "bogus transactions," 

 which some one had indecorously uttered during the trial. 

 The word " bogus," we believe, is a corruption of the name 

 of one " Borghese," a very corrupt individual, who, twent}' 

 3'ears ago, or more, did a tremendousjbusiness in the way 

 of supplying the great West, and portions of the South 

 West, with a vast ^amount of counterfeit bills, and bills 

 on fictitious banks, which never had an existence outside 

 the " forgetive brain " of him, the said " Borghese." The 

 Western people, who are rather rapid in their talk, when 

 excited, soon fell into the habit of shortening the Norman 

 name of Borghese to the more handy one of " Bogus ; " 

 and his bills, and all other bills of like character, were 

 universally"styled by them " bogus currency." By an easy 

 and not very unnatural process of transition, or metaphor- 

 ical tendency, the word is now occasionally applied to 

 other fraudulent papers, such as sham mortgages, bills of 

 sale, conveyances, &c. We believe it has not been in- 

 serted in any dictionary ; at least we do not find it either 

 in Webster's or Worcester's. Although we do not think 

 that the use of this phrase " bogus transaction " was likely 

 to mislead the jury, the cultivated lovers of pure and un- 

 defiled English will no doubt duly appreciate the expres- 



