Aug. 14. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



147 



Use of Coal as Fuel. — The prej iidices, if we 

 can call them so, against the general use of sea- 

 coal for the above purpose, wliich led to the 

 stringent measures enforced against offenders 

 (referred to in a Query of mine in a late number, 

 and by Mb. Meiiryweatiier, Vol. v., p. 568.), | 

 were 1 believe various. Besides the notion that i 

 the products of its combustion were (as no doubt | 

 they are) injurious to health, they were also con- 

 sidered hurtful to vegetation, especially that of 

 fruit-trees ; and I have heard that the ladies of 

 the period considered it bad for their complexions, 

 and refused to enter a room in which the combus- 

 tion of sea-coal was going on ! This prejudice 

 probably arose from such circumstances as the 

 following, which is extracted from Parke's Che- 

 mical Calechism (edit. 1808, p. 411. note §) : 



" It is related of a ludy of fusliion, who had incau- 

 tiously seated herself too near the fire at a quadrille 

 table, that her countenance changed suddenly from a 

 delicate white to a dark tawny, as though by magic. 

 The surprise and confusion of the whole party had 

 such an elTect upon the (shall we say) fair one, tliat 

 she was actually dying with apprehension, when the 

 physician dispelled their fears by informing his patient 

 that she need only wash her face, and to trust in future 

 not to mineral cosmetics, but to those charms which 

 nature had bestowed upon her." 



Arthur C. Wilson. 



Saints who destroyed Serpents. — As I before re- 

 marked in the case of St. Patrick, we often find 

 in Christian legends the conquest of sin or hea- 

 thenism represented by the obvious symbol of a 

 vanquislied dragon. Thus, St. Philip the apostle 

 is said to have destroyed a huge serpent at Hiera- 

 polis, in Phrygia, as also did St. Mai-tha the ter- 

 rible dragon called the Tarasque, which infested 

 the Phone at Aix. The same service St. Florent 

 peribrmed for the Loire. (The latter saint is said 

 to have lived from a.d. 237 to 300.) The Breton 

 saints, Cado, Maudet, and Paull, performed like 

 feats : nor is the fUnmus St. Keyne of Cornwall to 

 be omitted. The dragon is also the well-known 

 attribute of the archangel St. Michael, St. George, 

 St. Margaret, and the saintly Pope Sylvester. 

 St. Remain, Bishop of Rouen in the seventh cen- 

 tury, and predecessor of St. Ouen, destroyed a 

 huge dragon called La Gurgouille, which ravaged 

 the shores of the Seine. He was assisted by a felon 

 who had committed murder ; whence the chapter 

 of Rouen acquired the annual privilege of pardon- 

 ing a condemned prisoner. This curious ceremony, 

 called Levee de la Fierte, took place at the monu- 

 ment of St. Remain, near the linen mart. — See 

 M.Floquet's Ilistoire da Privilege de Saint- liomain, 

 ^"C, Rouen, 1833, 2 vols. 8vo. 



The stained glass windows in the cathedral, the 

 cliurch of St. Romain, and other churches in Rouen, 

 have the history of St. Romain, and the ceremony 

 of the Levee de lu Fierte, depicted in brilliant 



colours. The word Gargoyle, or Gurgoidlle, is 

 now used to denote the hideous forms which serve 

 as rain-spouts outside of some churches. 



" How are we to understand these things," asks 

 M. de Penhouet, " if we do not look upon them as 

 a transparent veil, through which we perceive the 

 efficacy of baptism administered to the followers of 

 serpent-worship [or idolatry in general], who upon 

 their conver.sion were plunged into the watt^r?" 



ElRIOXNACH^ 



«aucr(c5. 



DR. MESMER I.N" ENGLAND. 



During my early residence at Berlin, I was in 

 constant communication with Professor ^Valtilrth, 

 who may be considered the testamentary executor 

 of the above renowned man, as he stayed with him 

 for a considerable time at Frauenfeld (Switzer- 

 land), a short time previous to Mesmer's death, 

 and gathered ah ore ipsius all that information 

 which he subsequently published in his work. As 

 Dr. Mesmor had been closely connected in Paris 

 with men like Laf lyelte, D'Espremenil, and other.^ 

 at the outbreak of the French Revolution, he con- 

 sidered it prudent to leave France, and then re- 

 tired to England, where he lived under an assumed 

 name up to the year 1799, when he again went to 

 Germany. Although there were pamphlets pub- 

 lished in Englanrfrom 178G to 1792 on Mes- 

 merism, such as those by C. Peart, Martin, and 

 Bell ; yet, strange to say, they seemed not to know 

 even that Mesmer resided with them in the same 

 land. It is ' equally curious to observe, that 

 Jlesmer did neither' Qxuvche his profession while 

 here, nor even publish anything on his discovery, 

 which at that time excited some attention. 



Although this period lies now far behind us, yet, 

 I think, that some people may live who might give 

 some information on " Mesmer in England," which 

 would fill -up a gap in the biography of this in- 

 teresting man. As Mesmer was then already rich, 

 it is not likely that he lived in a back third floor, 

 as did Chateaubriand at that very same time, in 

 London. While on this subject I may add, that 

 so far as the year 1775, l^Iesmer had ad.lresscd a^ 

 memoir and some theses to the Royal Society of 

 London, which also, as far as I am aware of,_have 

 never been published. Amongst the missing 

 MSS. of JNIesmer, is A System of Cosmogony, and 

 An Essay on truly Democratic Government, of 

 which also traces might be found amongst the 

 family papers of those persons with whom he re- 

 sided"^ while in England. D. J. Latzky. 



EEPE.\TING CLOCKS, AND BARLOW THEIR INVENT OR 



A )\[r. Barlow was, in 1676, the inventor of re- 

 peating clocks, and, in 1688, of repeating watches. 

 Li Rees's Cyclopcsdia he is called "a Loudon cluck- 



