381 
in use before the Hieronymian Vulgate, and from which Je- 
rome made the recension now known as the Latin Vulgate. 
It was probably written, like the Vercelli manuscript, in gold 
or silver letters, but the metallic surface, if what are called 
gold and silver letters in this class of manuscripts be metallic, 
has long since been rubbed away, and nothing now remains 
but the traces of the original ink with which the letters were 
described before the golden substance was applied to them. Of 
this, however, we have no certain proof. 
It will be observed that this fragment is full of solecisms, 
mistakes of the scribe, and misspellings, a circumstance very 
common in the more magnificent manuscripts of the class to 
which Dr. Todd supposes it to belong; for the artists who 
excelled in penmanship and decorative skill were often very 
incompetent as biblical scholars; and the very costliness of 
the material, and elegance of the writing, were obstacles to 
correctness, for the scribe preferred leaving a mistake to spoil- 
ing the beauty of his penmanship by attempting to correct it. 
Thus we find dicentes for dicentis; parabolas for parabolam ; 
illum for illud; persecutionem for persecutione ; bona for 
bonam. 
DONATIONS. 
Antiquities from Dunshaughlin, viz.: A fragment of an 
Iron Chain, consisting of twenty-seven double-looped links, 
one Ring, and part of a Staple. A large Steel Knife or 
% Dagger. A Draughtsman made of Bone, mounted with 
_ Bronze Pin. A Bronze Spear-head with double Blade, and 
two lateral loops. Three Boar Tusks. The Bone of a 
_Cock’s foot. 
A Stone Celt, from the county Antrim. 
A similar Stone Celt, found near the Falls of Niagara. 
A Steel Spear and Ferule, from the Gambia. 
, A similar Spear, but larger, with small Trowel for Foot 
of Shaft, used by the Mandingoes, from the Gambia. 
