420 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 157. 



ships of war, leaving Sir Abraham Shipman in 

 command of the rest, who wintered and remained, 

 from April to October, in a desolate and unhealthy- 

 island called Anjadiva, where he lost a great part 

 of his crews. He then returned to Bombay, where 

 in the interval more pacific councils had prevailed, 

 and it was agreed that the place should be handed 

 over to the English. While the treaty was being 

 negociated, Sir Abraham Shipman died. He had 

 been named In the King's commission to be go- 

 vernor ; and on his death was succeeded by Mr. 

 Humphrey Cooke, whose name stood next to his 

 in that instrument, and of whose maladministration 

 so many painful stories are recorded. 



From the MS. additions to Dugdale (preserved 

 in the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, 

 vol. ii. p. 209.), it appears that Sir Abraham Ship- 

 man married Marie, fifth daughter of Montagu, 

 afterwards Earl of Lindsay, and widow of John 

 Hewett, D.D., who suffered death for his loyalty 

 to Charles I. in 1648. 



Tewars makes inquiry respecting a William 

 Cockayne. P. C. S. S. cannot precisely determine 

 Avhat relation he was to the lord mayor of that 

 name in 1619 ; but it may in some degi-ee account 

 for the mention of Sir Abraham Shipman as a 

 CO- legatee with Cockayne, that Montague Lord 

 Lindsay, Sir Abraham's brother-in-law, married 

 to his first wife Martha, daughter of Sir William 

 Cockayne, and widow of (Ramsay) Earl of Holder- 

 nesse. Vide Collectanea, ut supra. P. C. S. S. 



As a contribution to the Information respecting 

 Sir Abraham Shipman, I may mention that Cap- 

 tain Abraham Shipman was sent to Edinburgh 

 with reinforcements for the garrison of the Castle 

 in January 1639-40. A letter, of which he was 

 the bearer, from the King to the governor of the 

 castle (Lord Ettrick, afterwards Earl of Ruthven), 

 is in the Bodleian MSS., Rawlinson, A. cxlviii. 

 f. 15. ; and copies of instructions sent to him from 

 Sir r. Windebanke are in the same volume. 



W. D. Macbat. 



New College. 



FOKMTI-. 



(Vol. vl., p. 361.) 



Formyl is the radical of a series of organic che- 

 mical compounds. In the same manner as acetyl 

 forms the basis of a series, and ethyl, of a kindred 

 series, the latter including, as compounds, ether, 

 alcohol, &c. 



These names (ethyl, acetyl, formyl, &c.) are for 

 the most part theoretical stepping-stones (so to 

 speak), and constitute Important links in the elu- 

 cidation of results belonging to this section of 

 chemistry. 



Formic acid (one of the compounds of the 

 formyl series) Is related in its constitution to wood 



spirit, thus Illustrating the true connexion subsist- 

 ing between animal and vegetable chemistry, until 

 of late deemed entirely separate. 



Formic acid was first distinguished as a parti- 

 cular acid by Gehlen, who found it in red ants 

 (Formica ntfa), and first formed artificially by 

 Doberelner. 



With the exact date of the discovery I am un- 

 acquainted : it is probably within the last fifteen 

 years, during which period the labours of Baron 

 Liebig and other scientific chemists have been 

 successfully directed to this difficult and here- 

 tofore imperfectly understood branch of chemical 

 science. 



Formyl, as I have already stated. Is the radical 

 (probably hypothetical) of a series. Its symbolic 

 formula is as follows : viz. 



i. e. composed of two combining proportions of 

 carbon united to one of hydrogen. 



A particular notice of the formyl series will be 

 found In Professor Graham's Elements of Che- 

 mistry, published by Bailliere, Regent Street. 

 Professor Graham, who is the most able writer 

 on this subject in the English language, has nearly 

 completed the second edition of his Important 

 work. 



Dr. (now Sir Robert) Kane's work on Chemistry 

 may likewise be consulted with advantage. 



Professors Christison and Pereli'a could not be 

 expected to include the subject oi formyl in their 

 respective works, the former having written upon 

 Poisons, and the latter upon Materia Medica and 

 Therapeutics. W. L, A. 



I beg to refer your correspondent to the account 

 given by Dr. Simpson of Edinburgh (the eminent 

 discoverer of chloroform), of which the following is 

 a copy : 



«' Formyle is the hypothetical radical of formic acid. 

 In the red ant (Formica rtifa) formic acid was first dis- 

 covered, and hence its name. 



" Gehlen pointed it out as a peculiar acid, and it was 

 afterwards first artificially prepared by Diibereiner. 



" Chemists have now devised a variety of processes, 

 by which formic acid may be obtained from starch, 

 sugar, and indeed most other vegetable substances. 



" A series of chlorides of formyle are produced when 

 chlorine and the hypochlorites are brought to act on 

 the chloride, oxyde, and hydrated oxyde of methyle 

 (pyroxylic or wood spirit). 



" In the same way as formic acid may be artificially 

 procured from substances which do not contain formyle 

 ready formed, so also are the chlorides of this radical 

 capable of being procured from substances which do 

 not originally contain it. 



" Chloroform, chloro-formyle, or the perchloride of 

 formyle, may be made and obtained artificially by 

 various processes ; as by making milk of lime, or an 

 aqueous solution of caustic alkali, act upon chloral — by 

 distilling alcohol, pyroxylic spirit, or acetone, with 



