July 9. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



41 



unprejudiced mind. Lord Bacon's explanation 

 shows that he has been overreached by his fancy 

 and ingenuity. 



In all the ancient mysteries, the serpent was 

 more or less conspicuously introduced, and always 

 as a symbol of the invigorating or active power of 

 nature. The serpent was an emblem of the sun. 

 Solar, Phallic, and Serpent worship, are all forms 

 of a single worship.* The Hindu Boodh, Chinese 

 Fo, Egyptian Osiris, Northern Woden, Mexican 

 Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent), are one and the 

 same. (See the American Archceological lie- 

 searches. No. 1. ; The Serpent Symbol, and the 

 Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature 

 in Amej-ica, by E. G. Squier : New York, 1851.) 



In Hindostan, to this day, we have the Chau- 

 dravanasas and the Snaryuvanasas, worshippers of 

 the moon, the aqueous or female ; and of the sun, 

 the igneous or male principle. The Saivas conjoin 

 the two. Clemens Alexandrinus has a curious re- 

 mark, referring to the calling on Evoe or £lva in 

 the orgies of Bacchus ; he says : 



" The symbol in the orgies of Bacchus is a conse- 

 crated serpent ; and, indeed, if we pay attention to the 

 strict sense of the Hebrew, the name Evia, aspirated, 

 signifies /ewia/e serpent.'" 



In my list of saints who are represented with a 

 dragon or serpent beneath their feet, I omitted 

 St. Hilary : 



" He is usually represented with three books. In 

 Callot's Images he is treading on serpents, and accom- 

 panied by the text Numb. xxi. 7. Both these emblems 

 allude to his opposition to Arianism ; the books signi- 

 fying the treatises he wrote against it, and the serpents 

 the false doctrines and heresies which he overthrew." 

 Calendar of the Anglican Church Illustrated: London, 

 1851, p. 37. 



In Didron's splendid work (the Iconographie) 

 we have several references to ancient represent- 

 ations of our blessed Lord treading the dragon 

 under foot ; and sometimes the lion, the asp, and 

 the basilisk are added. (See Ps. xci. 13.) 



The Conception is usually represented in Chris- 

 tian art by a figure of Mary setting her foot, as 

 second Eve, on the head of the prostrate serpent 

 (in allusion to Gen. iii. 15.), and thus we find it in 

 Callot's Images. 



" Not seldom, in a series of subjects from the Old 

 Testament, the pendant to Eve holding the apple is 

 Mary crushing the head of the fiend: and thus the bane 



* In O'Brien's work on The Bound Towers of Ire- 

 land, London, 1834, may be found much curious matter 

 on this subject ; and a good deal of light is thrown on 

 the horrors of Serpent or Boodhist worship. It is, 

 however, a wild and irreverent book, and by no means 

 to be recommended to the general reader, independently 

 of the nature of its details. Mr. Payne Knight's book 

 is too well known to need mention here. 



and antidote are both before us.' 

 Legends of the Madonna.') 



(See Mrs. Jameson's 

 ElBIONNACH. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Early Notice of the Camera Obscura. — I send you 

 an early notice of the camera obscura, which is to 

 be found in vol. vi. of the Nouvelles de la Bepub' 

 lique des Lettres for September, 1686, p. 1016. It 

 is taken from a letter of Mons. Laurenti, medecin, 

 of Boulogne, " Sur rerection des especes dans uue 

 chambre optique." 



" C'est ainsi qu'on nomme line cbambre exactement 

 fermee partout, si ce n'est dans un endroit par ou on 

 laisse entrer la lumiere, afin de voir peints, et situes a 

 rebours, sur un morceau de papier blanc, Ics objets de 

 dehors qui respondent a ce trou, auquel il faut mettre 

 un verre convexe. On a souhaite, pour donnef plus 

 d'agr(5ment a ce spectacle, que les objets se peignissent 

 sur ce papier selon leur veritable situation ; et pour cet 

 effet on a cherche des expediens qui redressassent les 

 especes avant qu'elles parvinssent au foier du verre, 

 c'est-a-dire, sur le papier. L'auteur raporte ' 10' de 

 ces expediens, et trouve dans chacun d'eux quelque 

 chose d'incommode ; mais enfin il en raporte un autre, 

 i\\n est exempt de toutes ces incommoditez, et qui, par 

 le moien d'un prisme, au travers duquel il faut regarder 

 les images peints sur le papier, les montre dans leur 

 situation droite, et augmente meme la vivacite de leurs 

 couleurs. C'est le hazard qui a decouvert ce pheno- 

 mene." 



This letter is to be found at length in the Mis- 

 cellanea Curiosa, sive Ephemeridum Medico~Physi- 

 carum Germanicarum Academice Naturce curiosorum 

 decuria II. annus quartus, anni 1685 continens cele- 

 herrimorum Virorum observationes medicos : Norim- 

 bergfc, 1686, in 4to. It may perhaps be worth 

 consulting, if it were only to know what the ten 

 rejected expedients are. Anon. 



Queries on Dr. Diamond's Collodion Process. — 

 Will you oblige me by informing Dr. Diamond 

 through your valuable publication, that I am, in 

 common with many others, extremely indebted to 

 him for his collodion, and would esteem it a favour 

 if he would answer the following Queries, viz. : 



1 St. He says, in answer to a previous Query, 

 that " nitrate of potassa " is not formed in his 

 process. Now I wish to ask if (as the iodide of 

 silver is redissolved in iodide of potassium) it is 

 not formed when the plate is plunged into the 

 nitrate silver bath, as the nitrate decomposes the 

 iodide of potassium ? 



2nd. How long will the collodion, according to 

 his formulae, keep, as collodion made with iodide 

 of silver generally decomposes quickly. 



3rdly. Why does he prohibit washed ether ? 



4thly. Does he think cyanide of potassium would 

 do as well as the iodide, to redissolve the iodide of 

 silver, iodide of potassium being at present so dear? 



