350 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 288. 



preted of the Roman dictator, instead of the 

 more probable interpretation of" Caesar as sovereign 

 generally : this may have been the fruitful parent 

 of many of our own astonishing readings, followed 

 by the vulgar of all nations, for whom the won- 

 derful has always greater charms than the mode- 

 rate and possible. Thus, in Magdeburg, in the 

 market, opposite one of those curious statues so 

 common in the circles of Upper and Lower Saxony, 

 called Roland Saulen (Roland columns), there 

 was the figure of a stag on a pillar which Charle- 

 magne had killed ; or, according to the more 

 general belief, had invested with a golden collar, 

 and the legend : 



" Lieber Junge, lasa mich leben, 

 Ich will dir mein Halsband geben," 



" My dear fellow, let me live, 

 And then my collar I'll thee give." 



And it was the same stag that was afterwards 

 captured in the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, an 

 interval of about five hundred years. 



However, the most circumstantial detail of many 

 of the above circumstances is from the pen of an 

 olden canon of Lubeck Cathedral, which may still 

 be seen legibly written in black characters on the 

 ■whitewashed walls of the nave beneath the figure 

 of a huntsman in green shooting at a stag. Accord- 

 ing to the popular legend, Charlemagne, hunting 

 in the neighbouring Holstein woods, took a fine 

 stag, and hung round its neck a massive golden 

 collar ; and the animal having been captured 

 about four hundred years later by Henry the 

 Lion, when hunting on the same spot, he took the 

 collar to defray the expense of building the cathe- 

 dral, 1172. The golden cross, also found betwixt 

 the antlers, was placed in the arms of the cathe- 

 dral on a field gules : 



" Fama fidem fecit quod Carolus arbiter orbis, 



Qui meriti Magni nomen et omen habet : 

 Vandalicis olim cum venabatur in oris 



Aliopedem cervum ceperit artis ope, 

 Illius circumdedit aurea vincula collem, 



In quibus annorum mentio facta fait. 

 Post quadringentos venit Leo Martius annos 



Quem tota agnovit Saxonise ora ducem, 

 Cernit ubi hie cervum prsesentem tempore certo, 



Et vicibus certis, ire, redire locum, 

 Comprendi jubet et torqueum considerat, inter 



Cornuaque augustam conspicit esse crucem. 

 Motus ab hac novitate rei cathedrale pio ausu, 



Hie templum a;dificat muneribusque beat ; 

 Praesulibusque crucem dat sancta insignia flavum. 



Quae rubro campo conspicienda venit. 

 Hoc ubi cognosti, mirari desine lector, 



Cur faciem cervi templa novata ferunt." 



After all, however, we moderns are but copyists. 

 Aristotle (^Hist., lib. ix. cap. vi.) mentions the be- 

 lief in his days, but abstains from vouching the 

 fact. Pliny, less scrupulous, or better informed, 

 says : 



" Vita cervis in confess© longa, post centum annos 

 aliquibus captis cum torquibus aureis, quos Alexander 



Magnus addiderat, adopertis jam cute in magna obesitate." 

 — Nat. Hist, lib. viii. cap. il. 



This seems the germ of all the subsequent tales, 

 Julius C«sar having succeeded to all the honours 

 of Alexander after the latter had passed from the 

 minds of the people. W. B., Ph. D. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC COEBESPONDENCE. 



Mr. Lyte's Collodion. — May I be permitted through 

 your Journal to ask j'our valuable contributor Mr. Lyte 

 (who I am certain will with his usual kindness oblige 

 me) for an explanation of the (to me) following difficulty. 



In his paper on sensitive collodion which appears in 

 Vol. ix., p. 157. of your Journal, Mr. Lyte directs half 

 an ounce of iodide of potassium in powder to be put into 

 a six-ounce bottle : he calls this No. 1. The same quantity 

 of bromide of potassium is to be put into another six- 

 ounce bottle, and called No. 2. Bottle No. 1. is to be filled 

 with absolute alcohol, which after being in for two hours 

 is to be decanted into No. 2., and left for two more hours, 

 and then decanted into a third bottle for use ; of this 

 prepared liquid add one part to three of collodion. 



The one ounce or 480 grains of iodide and bromide 

 hereby dissolved in the five ounces and a half of alcohol 

 is in the proportion of eighty-seven grains of iodide and 

 bromide to the ounce of alcohol ; and if it is added to the 

 collodion in the proportion above stated, namely, one to 

 three, it will be eighty-seven grains of iodide and bromide 

 in one ounce of alcohol to three ounces of collodion, or 

 twenty-nine grains to the ounce. 



Now this caimot be, for the largest proportion usually 

 used for negative collodion is only five grains to the 

 ounce, and for positive collodion less than that. How 

 does Mr. Lyte explain it ? I am no chemist myself, 

 but I should say that the alcohol does not dissolve the 

 whole ounce of the sensitive compounds, for I believe they 

 are onh' very sparingly soluble in alcohol ; but if only a 

 portion is dissolved on' the first occasion, does Mr. Lyte 

 replace that portion by more the next time he iodizes ? 

 If so, what quantity ? Or does he use them until they 

 are quite dissolved (without adding any in the mean- 

 time) and then begin afresh with another half-ounce of 

 each ? 



Dr. Diamond, in his paper in the same Number, re- 

 commends spirits of wine to be used in sensitising in 

 combination with distilled water, whilst Mr. Lyte re- 

 commends alcohol, but which Dr. Diamond opposes : 

 pray, sir, what is the difference between the two ?* I 

 always thought they were the same, but under diflTerent 

 names. 



Perhaps at the same time Mr. Lyte will do us the 

 favour to inform us whether he has made any farther im- 

 provement in his collodion. 



Nineteen. 



Manchester. 



How on printing Positives. — Mr. How, whose waxed- 

 paper process is held in such great estimation by all the 

 advocates of that branch of photography, has just issued 

 another little work — the substance of a paper read by 

 him before The Chemical Discussion Society. Its object 

 is pretty fully described by its title, On the Production of 



[* Pure anhydrous alcohol at 60<> is '794, whereas the 

 specific gravity of ordinary rectified spirits of wine is 

 usually about "-840, and it contains from 80 to 83 per 

 cent, of absolute alcohol. —Ed. " N. & Q."] 



