204 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 200. 



a facet about half an inch square ; but I should 

 imagine a better instrument might be manufactured 

 with a proper handle, and some mode of obtaining 

 pressure ; not obtaining sufiicient is the cause of 

 a little after-disarrangement if the nitrate of silver 

 is laid on with a brush, but if floated the polish 

 remains. 



It cannot be doubted but paper is adequate to 

 any detail ; and when a paper shall be manufac- 

 tured of a perfect kind, there is no reason to sup- 

 pose but paper generally will rival collodion for 

 most purposes. 



Nothing prevents it at present but the uneven 

 surAice of paper. It is very nearly perfect in the 

 French negative paper ; but that has so many 

 other drawbacks to its use that it cannot be safely 

 depended upon. Our manufacturers have still 

 some improvements to make; for if Canson Freres 

 had left out the blackening chemical in the paper, 

 it would have been better than any of ours in my 

 estimation. Weld Taylor. 



Ammonio -nitrate of Silver. — Will any of your 

 scientific coi'respondents explain the chemical 

 cause of my inability to form the aramonio-nitrate 

 of silver from a solution of nitrate of silver upon 

 which albumenized paper has been previously 

 floated? Having excited some albumenized paper 

 on a forty-grain solution of nitrate of silver, I kept 

 the solution which had not been consumed for the 

 purpose of converting it into the ammonio-nitrate. 

 But on dropping in the ammonia, not only did no 

 precipitate take place, but the ammoniacal smell 

 which usually gives place to the tarry odour re- 

 mained. No albumen appeared to be dissolved 

 fi-om the paper, and the solution had lost none of 

 its silver, which I subsequently collected by means 

 of having formed a chloride. This has occurred 

 to me more than once, and I call attention to it, 

 as the investigation of it may lead to some new 

 results. Philo-Piio. 



T^t^Mti to iHtuor <k\itxiti. 



" Up, Gttards, and at them I " (Vol. v., p. 426. ; 

 Vol. viii., pp. 111. 184.). — It will, I hope, close all 

 debate on this anecdote, to state that the account 

 I gave of it in Vol. v., p. 426., was from the Duke 

 himself. I thought it very unlike him to have 

 given his order in such a phrase, and I asked him 

 how the fact was, and he answered me to the efiect 

 I have already stated. C. 



German Heraldry (Vol. viii., p. 150.). — Your 

 Querist will probably find what he inquires for in 

 Fursten's German Arms, published at Nurenberg 

 in folio, 1696. The plates are sometimes divided 

 and bound in three or four oblong volumes. The 

 work known as Fursten's German Arms was com- 

 menced by Siebmacker, continued by Furst and 



Ilelman, and, in 1714, by Weigel. It is often 

 quoted under these respective names ; but of later 

 years, more frequently luider that of Weigel's 

 Book of German Arms (AVeigel Wapenbuch). It 

 consists of six Parts, and professes to give the 

 arms of the principal nobility of the Roman king- 

 dom : dukes, princes, princely counts ; lords and 

 l^ersons of position, foregone and existing, in all 

 the provinces and states of tlie Gei-man empire. 

 The Preface is by John David Kohler. G. 



In the year 1698 a book was published by -J. A. 

 Rudolphi, at Nurenberg, entitled Heraldica Cu- 

 riosa. It is in German, a thin folio, with an in- 

 numerable quantity of engravings of the ai'ms of 

 German families. J. B. 



The Eye (Vol. viii., p. 2d.). — I hope that in- 

 teresting question raised by your correspondent 

 H. C. K., respecting the term " apple of the 

 eye," will meet with attention fiom some philo- 

 logist. It might help to solve it, if it could be 

 discovered when the phrase first came into use 

 in our language. Is it possible that the word 

 " apple" is a corruption of the Latin " pupilla ?" or 

 is it, according to H. C. K.'s suggestion, that the iris, 

 and not the pupil, is taken to represent an apple ? 

 Doubtless your learned correspondent is aware 

 that in Zech. ii. 12. the Hebrew phrase is varied, 

 the word n32l being used, and occurring only in 

 this passage. If Gesenius's derivation of this word 

 be correct, which makes it to signify " the gate of 

 the eye," we have this idea put into a fresh shape. 

 Have not the Arabs a phrase, " He is dearer to 

 me than the pupil of mine eye," as well as the 

 other one, "The- man of the eye?" Curiously 

 enough, the Greeks express this idea by another 

 word than /cJpr), viz. yXitvr) (i. e. Koprjs avyi], the 

 splendour of the pupil (kin. aiyXri), or the pupil 

 itself, o(pda\fj.ov KSpri). in which the change of signi- 

 fication is exactly the converse of what it is in 

 Ko'pTj ; viz., 1st, pupil; 2nd, a little girl; whence, 

 as a term of reproach, epoe kukti yK^fjurj. Qu^stor. 



Canute's Point., Soidhampton (Vol. vii., p. 380.). 

 — A correspondent having noticed the inscription 

 on the Canute Castle Inn, Southampton, inquires 

 for proof to authenticate the locality of the tra- 

 dition referred to. I submit the following extract 

 from a local history : 



" Canute's Point was a projection of the shore near 

 the mouth of the Itchen, where it is supposed the cele- 

 brated but much-embellished reproof to his courtiers 

 was administered ; and it was preserved by a line of 

 piles driven into the beach, until the construction of 

 the docks, which efT.iced the old beach line. Of Ca- 

 nute's Palace there are still a few remains, and the 

 position fully justifies the presumption of its identity." 



These piles were, I believe, in existence in the 

 year 1836, when the act for the construction of 

 the docks was obtained. William Spoor. 



