Mae. 18. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



255 



silver salts being added to the solution before using, 

 produces less injury to the half-tones, and this not by 

 merely weakening the solution, as one of double the 

 strength with the silver is better than one without it, 

 though only half as powerful. 



Your correspondent C. E. F. {ibid.) will find his 

 positives will not stand a saturated solution of hypo- 

 sulphite of soda, unless he prints them so intensely 

 dark that all traces of a picture by reflected light are 

 obliterated ; but I have sometimes accidentally exposed 

 my positives a whole day, and retained a fair proof by 

 soaking the apparently useless impressions in such a 

 solution. Geo. Shadbolt. 



l&t$\it& to iHtnor Qtttrtaft 



Saw-dust Recipe (Vol. ix., p. 148.). — See Her- 

 schel's Discourse on the Study of Natural Philo- 

 sophy, published in Lardner's Cyclopaedia, p. 64., 

 where he says : 



" That sawdust itself is susceptible of conversion into 

 a substance bearing no remote analogy to bread ; and 

 though certainly less palatable than that of flour, yet 

 no way disagreeable, and both wholesome and di- 

 gestible, as well as highly nutritive." 



To which passage the following note is appended : 



" See Dr. Prout's account of the experiments of 

 Professor Autenrieth of Tubingen, Phil, Trans., 1827, 

 p. 381. This discovery, which renders famine next 

 to impossible, deserves a higher degree of celebrity than 

 it has obtained." 



J. M. W. 



Though not exactly the recipe for saw-dust bis- 

 cuits which I have heard of, there is an account of 

 the process of making bread from bark in Laing's 

 " Norway " (Longman's Traveller's Lib.), part ii. 

 p. 219., where, on the subject of pine-trees, it is 

 stated : 



" Many were standing with all their branches dead, 

 stripped of the bark to make bread, and blanched by 

 the weather, resembling white marble, — mere ghosts 

 of trees. The bread is made of the inner rind next the 

 wood, taken off in flakes like a sheet of foolscap paper, 

 and is steeped or washed in warm water, to clear off its 

 astringent principle. It is then hung across a rope to 

 dry in the sun, and looks exactly like sheets of parch- 

 ment. When dry it is pounded into small pieces mixed 

 with corn, and ground into meal on the hand-mill or 

 quern. It is much more generally used than I sup- 

 posed. There are districts in which the forests suffered 

 very considerable damage in the years 1812 and 1814, 

 when bad crops and the war, then raging, reduced 

 many to bark bread. The Fjelde bonder use it, more 

 or less, every year. It is not very unpalatable ; nor is 

 there any good reason for supposing it unwholesome, 

 if well prepared ; but it is very costly. The value of 

 the tree, which is left to perish on its root, would buy a 

 sack of flour, if the English market were open." 



Now, if G. D., or any enterprising individual, 

 could succeed in converting saw-dust into whole- 



some food, or fit for admixture with flour, some- 

 what after the above manner, it would indeed 

 be a "happy discovery," considering the present 

 high price of " the staff of life." Bread has also 

 been made from the horse-chesnut ; but the ex- 

 pense of preparation, removing the strong bitter 

 flavour, is no doubt the obstacle to its success. 

 What could be done with the Spanish chesnut ? 



WlLLO. 



The saw-dust recipe is to be found in the Satur- 

 day Magazine, Jan. 3, 1835, taken from No. 104. 

 of the Quarterly Review. It is entitled, " How to 

 make a Quartern Loaf out of a Deal Board." 



J.C. 



Your correspondent G. D. may find something 

 to his purpose in a little German work, entitled 

 Wie kann man, bey grosser Theuerung und Hun- 

 ger snoth, ohne Getreid, gesundes Brod verschaffen f 

 Von Dr. Oberlechner : Xav. Duyle, Salzburg, 

 1817. W. T. 



Brydone the Tourist (Vol. ix., p. 138.). — The 

 literary world would feel obliged to J. Maceat to 

 tell us the name of the writer of the criticism who 

 says, " Brydone never was on the summit of Etna." 

 Did the scholars of Italy know more of what was 

 done by Englishmen in Sicily in Brydone's day 

 than they do at present ? How are the dates re- 

 conciled? Brydone would be 113 years old. 

 Mr. Beckford, I think, must have been some 

 thirteen or fourteen years younger. Brydone was 

 always considered to be in his relations in life a 

 man of probity and honour. I used to hear much 

 of him from one nearly related to me, whose 

 father was first cousin to Brydone's wife. 



H. R. NEE F. 



Etymology of "Page" (Vol. ix., p. 106.).— 

 Paggio Italian, page French and Spanish, pagi 

 Provencal, is derived by Diez, Etymologisches 

 Worterbuch der Romanischen Sprachen (Bonn, 

 1853), p. 249., from the Greek iratdioy. This de- 

 rivation is evidently the true one. I may take 

 this opportunity of recommending the above-cited 

 work to all persons who feel an interest in the 

 etymology of the Romance languages. It is not 

 only more scientific and learned, but more com- 

 prehensive, than any other work of the kind. L. 



Longfellow (Vol. ix., p. 174.). — There was a 

 family of the name of Longfellow resident in 

 Brecon, South Wales, about fifty or sixty years 

 ago, who were large landowners in the county; 

 and one of them (Tom Longfellow, alluded to in 

 the lines below) kept the principal inn, " The 

 Golden Lion," in that town. His son occupied a 

 farm a few miles from Brecon, about thirty years 

 ago ; and two of his sisters resided in the town. 

 The family was frequently engaged in law suits 

 (perhaps from the proverbially litigious disposition 



