80 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 143. 



not essential that the lifters should, I think it right 

 to state that I believe the very reverse to be the 

 truth. I have seen the experiment repeatedly 

 made, but never with such success as to make me 

 believe for a moment that the " two very young 

 and little girls " could with a finger each raise Sir 

 G. Carteret's big cook. 



The inhalation of the lifters the moment the 

 effort is made is doubtless essential, and for this 

 reason : — When we make a great effort, either in 

 pulling or lifting, we always fill the chest with air 

 previous to the effort ; and when the inhalation Is 

 completed we close the rima gloltidis to keep the 

 air in the lungs. The chest being thus kept ex- 

 panded, the pulling or lifting muscles have re- 

 ceived, as it were, a fulcrum round which their 

 power is exerted, and we can thus lift the greatest 

 weight which the muscles are capable of doing. 

 When the chest collapses by the escape of the air, 

 the lifters lose their muscular power. The inha- 

 lation of air by the liftee can certainly add nothing 

 to the power of the lifters, or diminish his own 

 weight, which is only increased by the weight of 

 the air which he inhales. Those who are not satis- 

 fied with this view of the subject, we must hand 

 over to the Mesmerists. D. Brewster. 



St. Andrews. 



Your correspondent W. Cl. will find In the Zoist 

 for January an article entitled, " A Suggestion to 

 explain certain Phenomena of Levity," in which the 

 subject of his Query is discussed. The writer throws 

 out a hint that a clue may be found to the hitherto 

 inexplicable experiment, in the Odic fluid of Baron 

 Relchenbach suspending or neutralising the law 

 of gravitation, in a way similar to that of mag- 

 netism In the instance of the iron rod In the electro- 

 magnetic helix. The subject is certainly one which, 

 as Sir David Brewster, who testifies to the reality 

 of the fact, remarks, merits a careful investigation. 



G. S. 



MONODY ON THE DEATH OF SIR JOHN MOORE. 



(Vol. i., pp. 320. 445. ; Vol. vi., p. 15.) 



The letter of H. Marshall, M.D., was a first-rate 

 literary hoax. 



There was (perhaps still Is) in Durham a horse- 

 doctor named Plenry Marshall, but he had of 

 course nothing to do with the letter. Benjamin 

 Galley, who is termed esquire in the letter, was a 

 poor Durham idiot ; and by the Rev. Dr. Alderson, 

 of Butterby, was meant Hutchinson Alderson, the 

 bellman of Durham. 



The paragraph in the Morning Chronicle., to 

 which Doctor Marshall's letter refers, had been 

 inserted by John Sidney Taylor, a bosom-friend 

 of the Rev. Charles Woolf, the author of the 



monody. Mr. Taylor replied to the Doctor's 

 letter in nn angry philippic ; wherein, after allu- 

 sions to Celsus and Galen, he informs the Doctor 

 he is not ambitious of taking his medicine, and 

 advises him, instead of claiming verses which do 

 not belong to him, to content himself with writing 

 verses on the tombstones of his patients. Mr. 

 Taylor evidently thought he was dealing with the 

 genuine letter of a real M.D., though he insinuates 

 that he was a quack. 



It will be seen by tlie Doctor's letter that he not 

 only claimed tlie authorship of the " Monody on 

 the' Death of Sir John Moore," but also of "The 

 Prisoner's Prayer to Sleep." Professor Wilson, of 

 Edinburgh, thereupon avowed himself the author 

 of the latter poem, and was probably as much 

 deceived by the Doctor's letter as Mr. Taylor had 

 been. 



These particulars are derived from an amusing 

 article entitled " The Wags of Durham," in Rich- 

 ardson's Borderers Table Booh., vii. 199—205.; 

 but in that article the Doctor's letter Is stated to 

 have appeared in the Courier of December 30th, 

 1824; I think it probable, however, that the date 

 given by your correspondent (November 3, 1824) 

 is correct. 



The name you print " DeacoU " should, I con- 

 ceive, be " Deacon," as It appears that the monody 

 had been attributed to Mr. Deacon, the author of 

 the Innheepers Album. 



May I add that in and about 1824 many hoax- 

 ing letters (some displaying much humour) ap- 

 peared In the Courier : the late Dr. Chaffy, master 

 of Sidney College, and Mr. Goulburn were, if I 

 mistake not, the subjects of some of these letters. 



The article on the Durham Wags appears to me 

 defective in not containing any allusion to a once 

 popular parody on the monody, which was pro- 

 bably from the same pen or pens as the Doctor's 

 letter. The subject of this parody was a Doctor 

 picked up drunk in the street : it contained these 

 lines : 



" We took him home, and put him to bed. 

 And told his wife and daughter. 

 To give him next morning a couple of red — 

 Herrings and soda water." 



There was also an allusion to his Marshall 

 cloak, whence it is pretty plain that the hero of 

 the parody was Doctor Marshall. C. H. Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



The letter in the Courier was a hoax, which 

 was exposed (I think in the Morning Chronicle'), 

 two or three days after its publication, by an au- 

 thenticated statement that "Dr. Marshall, of South 

 Street, Durham," was a horse-doctor of dissipated 

 rather than literary habits, and not even a graduate 

 of the Veterinary College. Shortly after appeared 

 a clever parody on the monody, ascribed, whether 

 truly or not I cannot say, to Praed. It described 



