40 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No, 220. 



nary remarks will be thought interesting by many 

 persons : 



" Ea definitive, nous esperons montrer d'une maniere 

 precise comment des gens d'esprit, sous l'influence de 

 l'amour du merveilleux, si naturel a l'homme, fran- 

 chissent la limite du connu, du fini, et, des lors, com- 

 ment, ne sentant pas le besoin de soumettre a un 

 examen reflechi l'opinion nouvelle qui leur arrive sous 

 le cachet du merveilleux et du sumaturel, i!s adoptent 

 soudainement ce qui, etudie froidement, rentrerait dans 

 le domaine des faits aux causes desquels il est donne 

 a l'homme de remonter. Existe-t-il une preuve plus 

 forte de l'amour de l'homme pour le merveilleux, que 

 1'accueil fait de nos jours aux tables tournantes ? 

 Nous ne le pensons pas. Plus d'un esprit fort, qui 

 accuse ses peres de credulite en rejetant leurs traditions 

 religieuses contemporains de Louis XIV., out repousse 

 comme impossible un traite de chimere. Ce fait con- 

 firme ce que nous avons dit de la credulite a propos de 

 VEssai sur la Magle d'Eusebe Salverte, car si l'esprit 

 fort qui repousse la revelation ne s'appuie pas sur la 

 methode scientifique propre a discerner l'erreur de la 

 verite, Uncertain du fait demontre, il sera sans cesse 

 expose a adopter comme vraies les opinions les plus 

 bizarres, les plus erronees, ou du moins les plus con- 

 testables." 



The two articles hitherto published by M. 

 Chevreul in the Journal des Savants for the months 

 of October and November, extend only to the first- 

 mentioned subject of these inquiries, the divining- 

 rod. The world will probably wait with some 

 impatience to learn the final views of so eminent 

 a scientific man. J. Macray. 



Oxford. 



CELTIC ETYMOLOGY. 



(Vol. viii., pp. 229. 551.) 



Your correspondent is a very Antams. He has 

 fallen again upon uim, and he rises up from it to 

 defend the Heapian pronunciation with renewed 

 vigour. But I cannot admit that he has proved 

 the pedigree of humble from the Gaelic. 



But, even if uim were the root of a Sanscrit 

 word, and not itself a derivative, still the many 

 stages through which the derivation undoubtedly 

 passes, without any need of reference to the 

 Gaelic, are quite enough to establish the exist- 

 ence and continuance of an aspirate, until we 

 arrive at the French ; and it has already been 

 proved, that many words which lose the aspirate 

 in French do not lose it in English. The pro- 

 gress from the Sanscrit is very clear : 



Sanscrit. Kshama. 



Pracrit. Khama. 



Old Greek, xdfia ; whence x^'^h X"i ua £" e > X® a ~ 



fxaKos. 



Latin. Humus, humilis. 



Italian. Umile ; because there is in Italian no 

 initial aspirate. 



French. 'Humble : because in words of Latin 

 origin the French almost always omit the aspirate. 



English. ' Humble. 

 And here it may be observed, that humilis never 

 had, except in the Vulgate and in ecclesiastical 

 writers, the metaphorically Christian sense to which 

 its derivatives in modern tongues are generally 

 confined, and to which I believe the Gaelic umhal 

 to be strictly confined. But the original words 

 for humble are iosal and iriosal, cognate with the 

 Irish iosal and iriseal, and the Cymric isel ; and 

 the olden and more established words for the 

 earth are, both in Gaelic and Irish, talamh and 

 lar, cognate with the Cymric llawr. 



All these facts lead to a reasonable suspicion 

 that uim, umhal, and umhailteas (an evident na- 

 turalisation of a Latin word) are all derived from 

 Latin at a comparatively recent date, as certainly 

 as umile, humilde, '/nimble, and 'humble are, and in 

 the same Christian sense. The omission of an 

 aspirate in the Gaelic word is then easily ac- 

 counted for, without supposing it not to exist iu 

 other languages, and for this very simple reason, 

 that no Gaelic word commences with h. There 

 are some Celtic roots undoubtedly in the Latin 

 language. It would be difficult, for example, to 

 derive mamia, munire, gladius, vir, and virago from 

 any other origin, but much the larger number of 

 words, in which the two languages resemble each 

 other, are either adoptions from the Latin or de- 

 rivatives from one common source, e.g. mathair 

 and mother, brathair and brother, as well as the 

 Latin mater and /rater, from the Sanscrit matri 

 and bhratri, &c, as all comparative philologists 

 are well aware. Would your correspondents call 

 it the 'Ebrew language, because a Gael calls it, as 

 he must do, Eubrach ? E. C. H. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Calotype Process : curling up of Paper. — I am 

 happy in having the opportunity of replying to your 

 correspondent C. E. F. (Vol. ix., p. 16.), because, with 

 himself, I have found great annoyance from the curling 

 up of some specimens of paper. In the papers recently 

 sold as Turner's, I find this much increased upon his 

 original make, so much so that, until I resorted to the 

 following mode, I spoiled several sheets intended for 

 negatives, by staining the back of the paper, and which 

 thereby gave a difference of intensity when developed 

 after exposure in the camera. 



I have provided myself with some very thick extra 

 white blotting-paper (procured of Sandford). This 

 being thoroughly damped, and placed between two 

 pieces of slate, remains so for many weeks. If the 

 paper intended to be used is properly interleaved be- 

 tween this damp blotting-paper, and allowed to remain 

 there twelve hours at least before it is to be iodized, it 

 will be found to work most easily. It should he barely 

 as damp as paper which is intended to be printed on. 



