Mar. 25. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



277 



with a heavy splash. She said she had been trying at 

 it all night, and had got it away at last." 



Mr. Robert Biggs, the medical attendant, pro- 

 nounced the "reptile" to be a fine conger eel, 

 which he believed had often done duty in the same 

 way. C. Mansfield Ingleby. 



Birmingham. 



It would be well if every popular error were 

 hunted down, as your correspondents have done 

 in the case of the snake-vomiting at Portsmouth. 

 The public need to be told, that no animal can 

 live in the alimentary canal but the parasites which 

 belong to that part of the animal economy. Of 

 these, the Lumbricus intestinalis is the largest, and 

 is discharged by children even of the size men- 

 tioned in the case of Jonathan Smith. 



Two years ago I met with a curious illustration 

 of the popular ignorance of that branch of natural 

 history which treats of our own reptiles, as well 

 as of the mode of growth of a popular marvel. 

 During the hot weather of the summer before last, 

 I was asked by a respectable farmer, if I had seen 

 the " serpent" which was lately killed in an ad- 

 joining parish. " Serpent ! " I replied ; " I suppose 

 you mean some overgrown common snake — per- 

 haps a female full of eggs?" "Well, it might 

 have been a snake at first, but it was grown into 

 a serpent ; and pursued a boy through the hedge, 

 but was fortunately encountered and killed by the 

 father." 



It is a moot point, whether the parasites of 

 animals are engendered or not within the body. 

 In the case of the bots of horses, they are known 

 to be the larvas of a fly which deposits its eggs on 

 the skin ; from whence they are licked off, and 

 conveyed into the animal's stomach, where they 

 are hatched and prepared for their other meta- 

 morphoses. 



I believe the only parasite taken in with water 

 in tropical climates is the Guinea Worm ; an 

 animal which burrows under the skin of the arms 

 or legs, and is extremely difficult of extraction, 

 and often productive of great inconvenience. 

 But whether the egg of this worm be taken into 

 the stomach, and conveyed by the blood into the 

 limbs, there to be hatched into life, or whether 

 it enter through the pores of the skin, I believe is 

 not determined. 



The popular delusion respecting the swallowing 

 of young snakes, and of their continuance in the 

 stomach, is a very old one, and is still frequent. 

 A medical friend of mine, not long since, was 

 called on to treat a poor hysterical woman, who 

 had exhausted the skill of many medical men (as 

 she asserted) to rid her of " a snake or some such 

 living creature, which she felt confident was and 

 had been for a long time gnawing in her stomach." 

 I suggested the expediency of working on the 

 imagination of this poor hypochondriac, as was 



done in the well-known facetious story of the 

 man who fancied he had swallowed a cobbler ; and 

 who was cured by the apparent discharge first of 

 the awls and strap, then of the lapstone, and, 

 finally, of Crispin himself. M. (2) 



FRENCH SEASON RHYMES AND WEATHER RHYMES. 



(Vol. ix., p. 9.) 



The following weather rules are taken from a 

 work which is probably but little known to the 

 generality of English readers. It is entitled : 



«' Contes populaires, Prejuges, Patois, Proverbes, 

 Noms de Lieux, de PArrondissement de Bayeux, re- 

 cueillis et publies par Frederic Pluquet, &c. : Rouen, 

 1834." 



Where saints' days are mentioned, I have added 

 the day of the month on which they fall, as far as 

 I have been able to ascertain it ; but as it some- 

 times happens that there is more than one saint of 

 the same name, and that their feasts fall on differ- 

 ent days, I may perhaps, in some cases, have fixed 

 on the wrong one : 



" Annee venteuse, 

 Annee pommeuse." 



" Annee hannetonneuse, 

 Annee pommeuse." 



" L'hiver est dans un bissac ; s'il n'est dans un bout, 

 il est dans l'autre." 



" Pluie du matin 

 N'arrete pas le pelerin." 



" A Noel au balcon, 

 A Paques au tison." 



" A Noel les moucherons, 

 A Paques les glacons." 



" Paques pluvieux, 

 An fromenteux." 



" Le propre jour des Rameaux 

 Seme oignons et poreaux." 



" Apres Paques et les Rogations, 

 Fi de pretres et d'oignons." 



" Feves fleuries 

 Temps de folies." 



" Rouge ros<5e au matin, 

 C'est beau temps pour le pelerin." 



" Pluie de Fevrier 

 Vaut jus de fumier." 



" Fevrier qui donne neige 

 Bel ete nous plege." 



" Fevrier 

 L'anelier " [anneau]. 



This saying has probably originated in the number 

 of marriages celebrated in this month ; the season of 

 Lent which follows being a time in which it is not 



