Oct. 22. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



397 



may be attained by following the plan of Mr, F. 

 M. Lytb, published in "N. & Q.," provided the 

 negative is sufficiently intense to admit of a con- 

 siderable degree of over-printing. 



It is a fact which appears to be entirely over- 

 looked by many operators, that the intensity of the 

 negative is the chief agent in conducing to black 

 tones in the positive proof; and it is almost im- 

 possible to produce them if the negative is poor 

 and weak : and the same observation applies to a 

 negative that has been owr-exposed. 



Geo. Shadbolt. 



Cement for Glass Baths. — The best I have 

 tried is Canada balsam. My baths I have had in 

 use five years, and have used them for exciting, 

 developing hypo, and cyanide, and are as good as 

 when first used. Noxin. 



New Process for Positive Proofs. — I have tried 

 a method of preparing my paper for positive 

 proofs, which, as I have not seen it mentioned as 

 employed by others, and the results appear to me 

 very satisfactory, I am induced to communicate to 

 you, and to accompany by some specimens, which 

 will enable you to judge of the amount of success. 



I use a glass cylinder, with air-pump attached, 

 such as that described by Mr. Stewart as em- 

 ployed by him for iodizing his paper. I put in 

 this the salt solution, and that I use is thus com- 

 posed : 2 drachms of sugar of milk, dissolved in 

 20 ounces of water, adding — 



Chloride of barium 

 Chloride of sodium 

 Chloride of ammonium - 



- 15 grs. 



- 15 grs. 



- 15 grs. 



In this I plunge several sheets of paper rolled into 

 a coil (taking care that they are covered by the 

 solution), and exhaust the air. I leave them thus 

 for a few minutes, then take them out and hang 

 them up to dry ; or as the sheets are rather diffi- 

 cult to pin, from the paper giving way, spread 

 them on a frame, across which any common kind 

 of coarse muslin or tarletan, such as that I inclose, 

 is stretched. 



I excite with ammonio-nitrate of silver, 30 

 grains to 1 ounce^of water, applied with a flat 

 brush. 



I fix in a bath of plain hypo, of the strength of 

 one-sixth. The bath in which the inclosed spe- 

 cimens were fixed has been in use for some little 

 time, and therefore has acquired chloride of silver. 

 I previously prepared my paper by brushing it 

 with the same salt solution, and the difference of 

 effect produced may be seen by comparing a proof 

 so obtained, which I inclose, with the others. 

 This latter is of rather a reddish-brown, and not 

 very agreeable tint. I have inclosed the proofs as 

 printed on paper of Whatman, Turner, and Canson 

 Freres, so as to show the effect in each case. The 



advantages which the mode I have detailed pos- 

 sesses are, I think, these : 



Greater sensitiveness in the paper, 



A good black tint, and 



Greater freedom from spots and blemishes, all 

 very material merats. C. E. F. 



[Our Correspondent has forwarded five specimens, 

 four of which are certainly very satisfactory ; the fifth 

 is the one prepared by brushing.] 



The Groaning Elm-plank in Dublin (Vol. viii., 

 p. 309.). — Dr. Rimbault has given an account 

 of the groaning-board, one of the popular delusions 

 of two centuries ago : the following notice of it, 

 extracted from my memoir of Sir Thomas Moly- 

 neux, Bart., M.D., and published in the Dublin 

 University for September, 1841, may interest your 

 readers : 



" In one of William Molyneux's communications he 

 mentions the exhibition of ' the groaning elm-plank ' in 

 Dublin, a curiosity that attracted much attention and 

 many learned speculations about the years 1682 and 

 1683. He was, however, too much of a philosopher to 

 be gulled with the rest of the people who witnessed 

 this so-called ' sensible elm-plank,' which is said to 

 have groaned and trembled on the application of a hot 

 iron to one end of it. After explaining the probable 

 cause of the noise and tremulousness by its form and 

 condition, and by the sap being made to pass up 

 through the pores or tubuli of tlie plank which was in 

 some particular condition, he says : ' But, Tom, the 

 generality of mankind is lazy and unthoughtful, and 

 will not trouble themselves to think of the reason of a 

 thing : when they have a brief way of explaining any- 

 thing that is strange by saying " The devil's in it," 

 what need they trouble their heads about pores, and 

 matters, and motion, figure, and disposition, when the 

 devil and a witch shall solve all the phenomena of 

 nature.' " 



W. R. Wilde. 



Passage in Whiston (Vol. viii., p. 244.). — J. T. 

 complains of not being able to find a passage in 

 Whiston, which he says is referred to in p. 94. of 

 Taylor on Original Sin, Lond. 1746. I do not 

 know what Taylor he refers to. Jeremy Taylor 

 wrote a treatise on original sin ; but he lived 

 before Whiston. I have looked into two editions 

 of the Sa-ipture Doctrine of Original Sin, by John 

 Taylor, one of Lond. 1741, and another of Lond. 

 1750; but in neither of these can I find any 

 mention of Mr. Whiston. 'A\ie6s. 



Dublin. 



" When Orpheus ivent doton" (Vol. viii., pp. 196. 

 281.). — In addition to the information given 

 upon this old song by Mr. Oldenshaw, I beg to 

 add the following. It was written for and sung 



