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formally adopted as part thereof, how it got out of the Prayer 
book. Touching went on at the present time for warts. 
Mr. SKRINEthought the abandonment by the English Sovereigns 
of the practice of touching was accounted for by the fact that the 
house of Brunswick did not claim the succession by divine right. 
King Edward the Confessor was not consecrated till 100 years 
after his death, did he touch, or was the power attributed to him 
afterwards? The power was claimed in France for Roman 
Catholic saints and for the heads of certain families. Charles 
Edward in 1845 touched a female child for the evil, who was cured 
in 21 days. (See Chambers’s History of the Rebellion.) The 
Bridgwater parish registers, which the speaker had inspected, con- 
tained a record of certificates granted to persons about to be 
touched by his sacred majesty. 
Major Menars said that touching was as old as the human 
race, and they saw records of it in the Egyptian temples. 
_ Mr. GREEN said the coin used was sometimes the gold coin of 
the time, the angel noble or ship angel, so-called from having the 
figure of a ship on it. In Holland, when Charles was poor, people 
: brought their own money. There were some coins struck for the 
purpose of touching, of an inferior quality gold. The prayers 
existed in MS. from the time of King Henry VI. The change of 
season from Easter to Michaelmas was on account of the smells 
for fear of infection, of which there was less risk in autumn than 
in spring. 
The afternoon of February 14th was given upto Mr. McMurtTRIE 
_ as Mr. Sandys was unable to exhibit his Geological Specimens, 
owing to absence on the Continent), “Notes on Autumnal 
_ Excursions in the Mendips” being the subject, marked with the 
writer’s usual accuracy, and illustrated by those diagrams which 
are agreat feature in his communications. The attendance of 
_ members was very small indeed, owing partly to the steady down- 
pour. Mr. McMurrriez during the afternoon expressed a wish 
_ that there were more young Geologists coming forward to 
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