472 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 267. 



The following is the true solution of Johnson's 

 remark : 



" We compute, in England, a park wall at a thousand 

 pounds a mile ; now a garden wall must cost at least as 

 much. . . . Now let us see; for a hundred pounds 

 you could only have forty-four square yards," &c. 



That is, a square space measuring 44 yards on 

 each side. As — 



1760 lineal yards, or one mile = lOOOZ. 

 176 lineal yards, one tenth of a mile = lOOZ. 

 4)176 lineal yards divided by 4, 



or a space of 44 lineal ykrds square. 

 44 X 44 = 1936 square yards, the space inclosed. 



It will be seen from this that 44 square yards, 

 as Boswell puts it, is a mistake, as no doubt John- 

 son said 44 yards square, or an area of 1936 square 

 yards. For 200Z. there would be a space 88 yards 

 square; but it will be seen that the space in- 

 closed is much larger in proportion, — in fact four 

 times the area, as 

 352 -J- 4 = 88. 88 X 88 = 7744 square yards inclosed. 



Dr. Elvington was correct in his remark that 

 Johnson meant 44 yards square ; and Johnson no 

 doubt fully understood the problem, as he re- 

 marked that "for 2001. there would be a space 

 88 yards square," which, as he said, would be 

 " very well ; " that is, four times the area which 

 could be inclosed for lOOZ. Those who push this 

 question farther will find that for 300Z. nine times 

 the area will be inclosed, and so on, as the square 

 of the figures, any larger sum will inclose a pro- 

 portionately larger area. Johnson knew this, 

 Boswell did not ; hence his mistake. 



Robert Rawlinson. 



PHOTOGBAPHIC COBBBSPONDENCE. 



" Bromo-iodide of Silver (Vol. x., p. 429.). — It is quite 

 certain that the use of this photogenic agent, as prepared 

 by Dr. Diamond, does greatly increase the sensitiveness 

 of the paper, although Mr. Leachman may think he has 

 ground for asserting, that it " cannot be any advantage 

 whatever." Now for the per contra : I have had ample 

 opportunity of trying Dr. Diamond's paper, and com- 

 paring it rigidly with Mr. Talbot's calotj'pe paper, and 

 the former is more sensitive in the proportion of 10 to 1. 

 But this is not the only advantage, for it is also chemi- 

 cally more sensitive to the action of those rays which 

 exert comparatively but little influence on a pure iodide 

 surface. The greens, hitherto so unmanageable in the 

 photographic landscape, play the same part, or nearly so, 

 that they do in nature ; and trees, which are generally a 

 mere black mass, have their foliage sufficiently enlivened 

 with artistic light and shade. Mr. Leachman states, 

 that bromide of silver is soluble in muriate of ammonia ; 

 but that the precipitate from Dr. Diamond's solution is 

 insoluble, and indicates the presence of iodine on the ap- 

 plication of the starch test. These results prove the 

 formation of a new chemical compound, viz. the bromo- 

 iodide of silver; and if Mr. Leachman will dissolve 

 bromide of silver, as' he forms it, in iodide of potassium, 

 without the addition of iodide of silver, which tends to 



confuse him, he will find, upon the addition of water to 

 this solution, that a precipitate of bromo-iodide of silver 

 is obtained. It is therefore certain that this compound is 

 thrown down upon paper prepared by Dr. Diajiond's 

 process, and the results are such as above described. 



J. B. Readk. 



Intense Skies — Strength of Solution. — What are the 

 conditions necessary to produce black and intense skies in 

 calotype negatives, which will not require painting in 

 order to produce positives with clear skies ? What is the 

 difference in the eifect produced b}' a strong and a weak 

 solution for iodizing paper for negative calotypes; say 

 between 15 and 30 grains of iodide of silver to 1 oz. of 

 water ? Does a small bubble in a lens deteriorate the 

 picture at all ? W. 



Titjfllti ta j^tnor Cutties, 



Works with defectively -expressed Titles (Vol. x., 

 p. 363.). — Permit me to warn the public, through 

 " N. & Q.," that the new work published by Mr. 

 Moxon, under the title Coleridge's Notes, Theo- 

 logical, Political, and Miscellaneous, is, to a great 

 extent, a reprint of Coleridge's Notes on English 

 Divines, which was issued by the same publisher 

 a very short time previous to the appearance of 

 the former work. By the way, a scarce book in 

 2 vols. 4to., called Felton's Hints for a New Edi- 

 tion of Shakspeare, is merely Hints for the Pictorial 

 Pliistration of Shakspeare' s Plays. 



C. Mansfield Inglebt. 



Birmingham. 



"Conjurer''' (Vol. x., p. 243.).— The old lexi- 

 cographer Minshew says, that " the conjurer 

 seemeth, by praiers and invocation of God's 

 powerful names, to compel the devil to say or 

 doe what he commandeth." And the next step 

 for this conjurer of the devil is " to call spirits 

 from the vasty deep," and to play other such 

 tricks by pretension to powers of magic. The 

 transition seems easy, as your correspondent will 

 find progressively taking place in Richardson's 

 Quotations from Chaucer, Gower, Tyndale, and 

 Bale. 



In the Bible, said to be that of Mathews by 

 Becke, Isaiah xlvii. 12., " Now go to thy conjurers, 

 and to the multitude of thy witches," is in the 

 common version, " Stand thou with thine enchant- 

 ments." The word conjurer had not obtained in 

 the time of Wiclif In the early version he is 

 called " a deuel clepere," that is " a caller or in- 

 voker of the devil ; " in the later version " an en- 

 chaunter," from the Vulgate Latin incantator. Q. 



" Obtain " (Vol. ix., p. 589. ; Vol. x., p. 255.).— 

 There can be little difficulty in accounting for the 

 usage of this word, as in the instance produced by 

 Y. S. M. " This practice on that principle ob- 

 tains :'" that is, as Johnson explains it, I. "con- 

 tinues in use;" 2. "is established." And he 

 produces five examples according with these 



