284 Mr. Halliwell o?i Notices of America by Middle-ageWriters. 



^ an inch in diameter. I slightly moisten the interior of the 

 tube with distilled water, not allowing the hands or fingers to 

 come in contact with the water: the tube thus prepared is to 

 be held vertically over the apex of the jet of burning gas. By 

 these means a strong solution of the substance is obtained, 

 and which may be tested with perfect ease by Hume's test, 

 or any other of the usual tests employed for arsenic, &c. 



I hope that the foregoing process will be found to possess 

 all the delicacy and precision necessary for distinguishing 

 these two bodies from each other, and that it will be the means 

 of removing every doubt from the minds of the experiment- 

 alist in future. 



Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, June 21, 1839. J. M. 



XXXIX. An Account of afetso Independent Notices of /Ime- 

 rica by Middle-age Writers. By J. O. Halliwell, Esq., 

 F.R.S., F.S.A., RB.A.S., 4c.* 



IN the notes to the new edition of the Travels of Sir John 

 Maundevile, I slightly noticed a very singular passage, 

 which bears evidence of a far higher degree of geographical 

 knowledge than the Englishmen of the fourteenth century 

 have hitherto had credit for. I give it here at length in mo- 

 dern phraseology. 



" In that land, nor in many others beyond, no man can see 

 the star Transmontane, which is called the Star of the Sea, or 

 Pole-Star ; but men see another star, the contrary to it to- 

 wards the south, and is called Antarctic. And this is because 

 the world is of round shape, for the part of the firmament 

 that shows in one country, does not show in another country. 

 And men may well prove by experience and subtle trial of in- 

 tellect, that if a man would search the world and find passage 

 by ships, men might go by ships all about the world, both 

 beneath and above. \^He then gives his astronomical reasons, 

 for which I refer to the work itself.'] By the which I tell you 

 certainly that men may environ all the earth, beneath and 

 above, and return again to his own country, whoever had 

 company and shipping, and always he wouldjind men, lands, 

 isles, as well as in this country." 



Maundevile afterwards proceeds to relate a story, which he 

 had heard when young, of a traveller who from India got to 

 Norway, and found several countries in his way. He also 

 adds that there are more than five thousand islands beyond 

 India, which shows that there was a very general notion of 

 the extent of land in the western world. 



* Communicated bv the Author. 



