Jan. 20. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



51 



the phrase ecrasez Vinfame could never have been 

 understood by any one as applicable to Jesus 

 Christ. The fact is, infame is an adjective, and is 

 the same in both genders. When used as a noun, 

 as in the passage from Voltaire, the elision leaves 

 it doubtful whether the article intended be le or 

 la ; nor is this uncertainty removed till we come 

 to la and elle in the subsequent part of the sen- 

 tence. PIenky H. Bbeen. 

 St. Lucia. 



DID THE GREEK SURGEONS EXTRACT TEETH? 



(Vol. X., pp. 242. 355, 356. 510.) 



Mr. Hayes's suggestion as to the probable cir- 

 cumstance which led the Greek surgeons to stop 

 hollow teeth, is, I think, inadequate, especially as 

 the fact of the imbedding of a grape or any other 

 seed in the hollow of a decayed tooth would not 

 afford relief; on the contrary, the swelling of the 

 seed after it had remained awhile in such a po- 

 sition, would produce inconvenience, pain, and 

 sometimes intense suffering, as I have more than 

 once experienced. It is, however, matter of less 

 importance whence the practice was derived, than 

 whether we possess reliable evidence of the fact, 

 nor is it affected by the condition of the material 

 used. Teeth were stopped with several intentions, 

 — to prevent their breaking during extraction, to 

 preserve them, and to alleviate pain. Celsus gives 

 the following advice as to the first : 



" Turn, si fieri potest, manu ; si minus, forfice dens ex- 

 cipiendus. Ac, si exesus est, ante id foramen vel lina- 

 mento, vel bene accommodato plumbo replendum est." — 

 Lib. VII. c. xii. 



How the lead was prepared for this purpose we 

 have no information. 



Paulus ^gineta (Adams's Trans., published by 

 the Sydenham Society), vol. ii. p. 294., also ad- 

 vises the filling a carious tooth with a small tent, 

 with the same object as mentioned by Celsus. 

 Marcellus recommends filling a hollow tooth with 

 gum from the ivy to prevent its falling out. Se- 

 rapion, the filling a like tooth, and painful, with 

 opium. 



As regards filing teeth, Paulus iEgineta advises 

 that an unusually large tooth, or the projecting 

 portion of a broken one, be scraped away with a 

 file. Albucasis gives directions for filing down 

 the teeth for fastening them with gold threads, 

 and gives drawings for extracting the fangs of 

 teeth. (P. ^ginet., ut supra, vol. ii. p. 295.) 



The references given to Mr. Hayes by M. D. 

 will supply him with a vast amount of information 

 on the subject to which he has turned his at- 

 tention. R. WiLBRAHAM FaI-CONER, M. D. 



Bath. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Bromo-iodide of Silver. — I have read the communi- 

 cations of Mr. Leaciiman and Mk. Lyte on this photo- 

 genic agent with much interest, and in reply I beg to 

 oflFer the following observations. Mr. Leachman proves 

 that bromide of silver is entirely dissolved in a saturated 

 solution of muriate of ammonia, and that bromo-iodide of 

 silver (for such is, in fact, the precipitate he forms, though 

 he doubts it) is altogether insoluble in that menstruum. 



Mk. Lyte proves that iodide of silver and the " so- 

 called bromo-iodide of silver," when digested in strong 

 liq. amm., are each similarly acted upon by an excess of 

 dilute nitric acid. He then forms a true bromo-iodide of 

 silver, but in such combination as to exhibit the same 

 kind of milkiness which occurs with pure bromide of 

 silver on the addition of an acid ; and hence he leads to 

 the conclusion that bromide, and not iodide, of silver is 

 exhibited by this experiment ; whereas Mr. Leachman 

 thinks that by his experiment on the same double com- 

 pound, the precipitate cannot be bromide of silver at all, 

 but must evidently be the iodide. In this point of view, 

 therefore, to use a legal formula, the case is one of Lyte 

 V. Leachman. 



I now offer with some confidence the following experi- 

 mentum crucis, as a proof of the accuracy of my former 

 statement: — Form bromide of silver by the addition of 

 the nitrate to bromide of potassium ; wash the precipitate, 

 and dissolve it in an excess of bromide of potassium. It 

 is scarcely necessary to say that bromide of silver is 

 thrown down on diluting this solution with water. 

 Next, form iodide of silver and dissolve it in an excess of 

 iodide of potassium. Mix the two solutions together to 

 form a bromo-iodide of silver ; and should any cloudiness 

 appear, it is immediately removed by the addition of a 

 few grains of iodide of potassium. Now the addition of 

 water to this compound so entirely throws down the 

 whole, both of the bromide and iodide of silver (or, as we 

 may now term it, the bromo-iodide of silver), that not a 

 trace of silver is to be found in the filtered supernatant 

 fluid. Hydrochloric acid, that stern detector of silver, 

 leaves it as clear as rock-crystal. I cannot devise a more 

 stringent formula of verification as to the correctness of 

 Dr. Diamond's theory ; and when we find that in prac- 

 tice the results he obtains can be arrived at by no other 

 method, it is probable that his present opponents will be 

 converts to his views. J- B- Reade. 



The Photographic Exhibition. — The display of photo- 

 graphic pictures this year is most satisfactory ; not only 

 as showing the gradual progress and general improve- 

 ments of the art, but also for the evidence it affords of 

 the many purposes to which the art is applicable. We 

 cannot enter into details of the beauty of the landscapes, 

 &c., by Mr. Fenton, Mr. Delamotte, Mr. Leverett, Mr. 

 Stokes", &c. ; of Mr. Mayall's admirable portraits and won- 

 drous stereoscopic likenesses ; of the excellence of some 

 of the small collodion positives exhibited by Mr. Rosling ; 

 of the " clouds " and portraits of Mr. Hennah ; or of the 

 promising pictures of Mr. Lake Price : all these, excellent 

 as they are, belong, with the exception perhaps of Mr. 

 Price's works, to general photograph j- — and admirable 

 they are. But there are some of the more special pur- 

 poses to which photography has been applied with most 

 satisfactory results, to which we would rather direct 

 attention. Its application to the physiognomy of disease, 

 as shown by Dr. Diamond's "Melancholy;" to the 

 microscope, as shown by Mr. Kingsley's beautiful illus- 

 trations of the " Breathing System of Insects," &c. ; are 

 striking instances of this. Not less so are the Count 

 de Montizon's zoological portraits, which make him the 

 Landseer of photography ; Mr. Contencin's copies of 



