Dec. 23. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



5U 



MIMTABT TITLES. 

 (Vol. X., p. 433.) 



As It appears to me that your correspondent 

 R. A. has not fully elucidated the matter before 

 him, may I suggest the following by way of so- 

 lution of the Query to which he refers. 



I think that he would have arrived at the true 

 value of the titles of our officers If he had recol- 

 lected that the terms lieutenant, major, and general 

 are adjectives, and are merely abbreviated titles, 

 the other portions of them being omitted for con- 

 venience sake. Perhaps my meaning will be seen 

 by the following examples, in which the words 

 printed In Italics are those usually left out : 

 private, soldier; drummer; drum- mer- major ; 

 Serjeant ; serjeant-major ; lIeutenant-capto?V<, i. e. 

 locum tenens of the captain, &c. ; captain ; captain- 

 major ; lieutenant-colonel ; colonel. Whenever 

 any of the last three, who are called field officers, 

 are entrusted with higher and more extensive 

 commands, the word general is added to their re- 

 spective ranks, and the titles are shortened in the 

 following manner : Capton-major general ; lleu- 

 iQn&nt-colonel general ; coZoneZ-general. 



Though the title " captain-major " may seem 

 strange to our ears, it Is as legitimate a term as 

 " drum-major" or " sergeant-major ;" and that of 

 " captain-general " Is employed in the armies of 

 other European states, though not In ours. 



I ought to beg pardon for venturing so far out 

 of my proper line as into military matters ; but in 

 the republic of " N. & Q." every man Is free to 

 " shoot his bolt" where he pleases. H. Cotton. 



Thurles. 



R. A.'s explanation of the Query is very satis- 

 factory, where It fails to allude to the difficulty 

 referred to. The reason why a lieutenant-general 

 should be made the title of a superior officer to a 

 major-general, when a major Is a higher grade 

 than a lieutenant, was required. To R. A.'s ex- 

 planation of the origin of the title major, little 

 objection need be taken. In effect he says that, 

 as " a sergeant-major Is superior to the sergeant," 

 so Is a major (i. e. a captain-major to a captain). 

 Hence by the same law, the next superior officer 

 to a colonel should be a major-colonel. In effect 

 he Is termed a major-general. If we go from 

 greater to less, the anomaly remains ; we have 

 lieutenants and second lieutenants, we have cap- 

 tains and second captains, but we also have ge- 

 nerals, lieutenant-generals, and major-generals. 

 The origin or the reason, if one there be, of the 

 latter title still remains unexplained. O. S. 



photographic cobeespondencb. 



Mr. Lyte on the Collodion Process. — As an enthusiastic 

 admirer and constant practitioner of the collodion pro- 

 cess, I cannot help offering my testimony against Mr. 

 Sutton and his opinions. The advantages which the 

 collodion possesses over both the paper and albumen pro- 

 cesses, seem to me so obvious, that I am always surprised 

 to hear them brought into comparison; and can only 

 attribute Mr. Sutton's opinions to his allowing theory to 

 take the place of experience, and adopting the ideas of 

 others, rather than depending on the results of his own 

 practice. The paper process has several disadvantages, 

 which must be obvious to all its practitioners. The ex- 

 treme difficulty of obtaining a paper of even texture ; the 

 constant occurrence of spots ; the gravelly effect of wax- 

 paper, and the bad keeping qualities of all paper prepared 

 by other processes ; and then, after all, the woeful defici- 

 ency of half-tints in the positives, and the length of time 

 required to obtain an impression. In the albumen pro- 

 cess we have many of these defects remedied, but on the 

 other hand very great difficulty of preparation; the 

 worst part of which is, that the plate is constantly spoiled 

 in the process of fixing — after all the trouble of preparing 

 and taking the picture. Now, in the collodion process, 

 perfected as it is at present, we have, I may saj', none of 

 these disadvantages. We can prepare a plate easily in five 

 or six minutes, which shall take a picture quite instan- 

 taneously, so as to take objects in rapid motion ; or by 

 diminishing the dose of nitrate of silver, can cause the 

 plate to keep for any required length of time, and still 

 work as rapidly as usual. 



It is somewhat singular, that Mr. Shadbolt and my- 

 self should have both been experimenting in so com- 

 pletely the same line, as his process seems to differ from 

 mine in no essential point, except that of my mixing the 

 nitrate of silver with the grape sugar or honey before 

 applying it to the plate ; whereas he leaves a very slight 

 excess of nitrate on the plate on which he applies the 

 honey. At the same time it is certain that Mr. Shad- 

 bolt is a discoverer quite as independent as myself, 

 although I believe I can lay claim to priority of publica- 

 tion. In the process which I subjoin, I have adopted his 

 plan of washing the plate with a weaker nitrate bath, so 

 as not to introduce too much of that substance into the 

 syrup. At the same time I never leave it out of the 

 syrup, as he does, as that causes unequal development. 

 To prepare the syrup: take one pound of best white 

 starch ; mix this in one pint of distilled water, cold, so as 

 to form a thin paste ; then mix, in a china-lined sauce- 

 pan, or glass or porcelain vessel, two quarts of distilled 

 water and one ounce of sulphuric acid ; make this boil, and 

 add little by little, stirring all the time, the starch paste ; 

 boil this for fifteen minutes, and then pour it into a large 

 bottle, so as just to fill it ; place this bottle in a saucepan 

 filled with strong salt and water, make the whole boil, 

 and keep it boiling for twelve hours ; the bottle must be 

 well corked. Pour the liquid thus produced into a basin, 

 and add whiting to it as long as effervescence ensues; 

 then strain it through a linen cloth, and having filtered 

 it through animal charcoal, evaporate to one pint and 

 three quarters. Then add five grains of nitrate of silver, 

 and one ounce of alcohol, and place a lump of camphor in 

 the bottle. The nitrate of silver must not be added till 

 the syrup is quite cold, and it must not afterwards be 

 exposed to the light more than can possibly be avoided. 

 This syrup I pour over the plate which has been sensi- 

 tised as usual, and washed with a bath of nitrate of silver 

 half a grain to the ounce of water ; and having let the 

 plate drain, I store it in a dark box. To develope the 

 picture, I immerse it in a bath of 500 grains of nitrate of 



