Apeil 30. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



439 



be justified in extracting. Dr. Whitaker and 

 Brook {Lives of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 163.) seem 

 to be at variance with regard to the Midgleys, the 

 former mentioning only one, and the latter two, 

 vicars of the family. Jas. Crossley. 



Nose of Wax (Vol. vii., p. 158.). — Allow me to 

 refer to a passage in " Ram Alley, or Merry 

 Tricks," by Lodovvick Barry (which is reprinted 

 in the fifth volume of Dodsley's Old Plays% illus- 

 trative of this term. In Act I. Sc. 1., Dash de- 

 scribes the law as 



" The kingdom's eye, by which she sees 

 The acts and thoughts of men." 



Whereupon Throate observes : 



" The kingdom's eye ! 

 I tell thee, fool, it is the kingdom's nose. 

 By which she smells out all these rich transgressors ; 

 Nor is't of flesh, but merely made of wax, 

 And 'tis within the power of us lawyers, 

 To wrest this nose of wax which way wo please." 



This illustration was overlooked by Nares, to 

 whose Glossary you refer. C. H. Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



Canongate Marriages (Vol. v., p. 320. ; Vol. vii., 

 p. 67.). — The correspondent who expressed his 

 surprise some time ago at his Query on this sub- 

 ject not having called forth any remark from your 

 Scotch friends, will perhaps find the explanation 

 of this result in the fact, that in Scotland we are 

 guided by the civil or Roman law on the subject 

 of marriage ; and, consequently, with us marriage 

 is altogether a civil contract ; and we need the 

 intervention neither of clergyman, Gretna black- 

 smith, or the equally disreputable Canongate 

 coupler. The services of the last two individuals 

 are only sought for by you deluded southerns. 

 All we require here is the agreement or consent 

 of the parties {^'■consensus nan concubitus facit 

 matrimonium") ; and the legal questions which arise 

 have reference chiefly to the evidence of this con- 

 sent. The agreement may be made verbally, or 

 in writing, before witnesses or not, as the parties 

 choose. Or a marriage may be constituted and 

 proved merely by habit and repute, i. e. by the 

 parties living together as man and wife, and the man 

 allowing the Avoman to be addressed as his wife. 

 A promise of marriage, followed by copula, also 

 constitutes a marriage. But It would be out of 

 place here to enter into all the arcana of the 

 Scotch law of marriage : suffice It to say, that it 

 prevails equally at John o' Groat's House and 

 Aberdeen, as in the Canongate or at Gretna Green. 

 A regular marriage requires certain formalities, 

 such as the publication of banns, &c. An irregular 

 one is equally good in law, and may be contracted 

 in various ways, as above explained. 



This law, though at first sight likely to lead to 

 great abuses, really works well in practice ; and 



prevents the occurrence of those distressing cases, 

 which not xinfrequently happen in England, of 

 seduction under promise of marriage, and subse- 

 quent desertion. Scotus. 



Smock Marriages (Vol. vii., p. 191.). — Accord- 

 ing to Scotch law, the marriage of the fixther and 

 mother legitimises all children previously born, 

 however old they may be. This is called legiti- 

 mlsation j)er suhsequens matrimonium, and is not 

 unfrequently taken advantage of by elderly gen- 

 tlemen, who, after having passed the heyday of 

 youth, wish to give their children a position, and 

 a legal right to inherit their property. Like the 

 rule as to marriage above explained, it is derived 

 from the Roman or civil law. There are very ievTy 

 I should rather say no, legal fictions in the Scotch 

 law of the nature alluded to by your correspon- 

 dent. ScoTUS. 



Sculptured Emaciated Figures (Vol. v., p. 497. ; 

 Vol. vi. passim). — In Dickinson's Antiquities of 

 Nottinghamshire, vol.i p. 171., is a notice with an 

 engraving of a tomb in Holme Church, near South- 

 well, bearing a sculptured emaciated figure of a 

 youth evidently in the last stage of consum[)tion, 

 round which Is this Inscription : " Miseremuni mei, 

 miseremini mei, saltern vos amici mel, quia niiinua^ 

 Domini tetigit me." J. P., Jun.^ 



Do the Suns Bays put out the Fire (Vol. vii.,^ 

 p. 285.). — It is known that solar light contains 

 three distinct kinds of rays, which, when decom- 

 posed by a prism, form as many spectra, varying- 

 in properties as well as In position, viz. luminous, 

 heating or calorific, and chemical or actinic rays. 



The greater part of the rays of heat are even 

 less refrangible than the least refrangible rays of 

 light, while the chemical rays are more refrangible 

 than either. The latter are so called from their 

 power of inducing many chemical changes, such 

 as the decomposition of water by chlorine, and the 

 reactions upon which photographic processes de- 

 pend. 



The relative quantities of these several kinds of 

 rays in sun-light varies with the time of day, the 

 season, and the latitude of any spot. In general, 

 where the luminous and heating rays are most 

 abundant, the proportion of chemical rays is least ;. 

 and, in fact, the two seem antagonistic to each 

 other. Thus, near the equator, the luminous and 

 calorific rays being most powerful, the chemical 

 are feeble, as is shown by the length of time re- 

 quired for the production of photographic pic- 

 tures. Hence, also, June and July are the worst 

 months for tlie practice of photography, and better 

 results are obtained before noon than after. 



It is precisely for a similar reason that the com- 

 bustion of an ordinary fire, being strictly a chemical 

 change, Is retarded whenever the sun's heat ing and 

 luminous rays are most powerful, as during bright. 



