368 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 80. 



plaints, by walking among a flock of sheep, is not 

 new. The present Archbishop of Dublin was 

 recommended it, or jiractised it at least, when 

 young. For pulmonary complaints the principle 

 was perhaps the same as that of following a plough, 

 sleeping in a room over a cowhouse, breathing the 

 diluted smoke of a limekiln, that is, the inhaling of 

 carbonic acid, all practised about the end of the 

 last century, when the knowledge of the gases was 

 the favourite branch of chemistry. 



A friend of mine formerly met Dr. Beddoes 

 riding up Park Street in Bristol almost concealed 

 by a vast bladder tied to his horse's mouth. He 

 said he was trying an exjjerinient with oxygen on 

 a broken-winded horse. Afterwards, finding that 

 oxygen did not answer, he very wisely tried the 

 gas most opposite to it in nature. C. B. 



Sacramental Wine (Vol. iii., p. 320.). — This 

 idea is a relic of Roman Catholic times. In 

 Ireland a weakly child is fretpicntly brought to 

 the altar rails, and the priest officiating at mass 

 recpiested to allow it to drink from the chalice of 

 what is termed the ablution, that is, the wine and 

 water with which the chalice is rinsed after the 

 priest has taken the communion, and which ablu- 

 tion ordinarily is taken by the priest. Here the 

 efBcacy is ascribed to the cup having just before 

 contained the blood of Our Lord. I have heard 

 it seriously recommended in a case of hooping- 

 cough. Your coiTcspondent Mr. Bdckman does 

 not give sufficient credit for common sense to the 

 believers in some portion of folk lore. Red wine 

 is considered tonic, and justly, as it contains a 

 greater proportion of tannic than white. The 

 yellow bark of the barberry contains an essential 

 tonic ingredient, as the Jesuit's bark does quinine, 

 or that of the willow salicine. Nettle juice is well 

 known as a purifier of the blood; and the navel- 

 wort, like Euphrosia, which is properly called Eye- 

 hright, is as likely to have had its name fi-om its 

 proved effica(;j as a simple, as from any fancied 

 likeness to the region affected. The old monks 

 were shrewd herbalists. They were generally the 

 physicians of their neighbourhood, and the names 

 and uses of the simples used by them survive the 

 ruin of the monasteries and the expulsion of their 

 tenants. Kf.rriensis. 



" Nettle in Dock out " (Vol. iii., pp. 1 33. 201 . 205.). 

 ■ — I can assure A. E. B. that in the days of my 

 childhood, long before I had ever heard of Chaucer, 

 I used invariably, when I was stung with net tics, 

 to rub the part affected with a dock-leaf or stalk, 

 aaid repeat, 



" Nettle out, dock in." 



This charm is so common in Huntingdonshire 

 at this day that it seems to come to children almost 

 instinctively. None of them can tell where they 

 first heard it, any more than why they use it. 



AuuN. 



METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 



The following passage from a sermon preached at 

 Paul's Cross, March 26, 1620, by John King, Bishop 

 of London, refers in a curious manner to many im- 

 provements and alterations which have either been 

 already effected in our own time, or are still in 

 contemplation. The sermon was " on behalfe of 

 Panic's Church," then in a ruinous condition ; and 

 was delivered in the presence of James himself, 

 who suggested the preacher's text, Psal. cii. 13, 14. 



" So bad my manner ever beene aforetime," says the 

 Bishop, " to open tbe volume of this Booke, and goe 

 through the fields of the Old and New Testament, 

 plucking and rubljing such cares of corne therein as I 

 best liked, making choice (I meane) of my text, and 

 buckling myself to my task at myne owne discretion ; 

 but now I am girt and tied to a Scri))tiire liy him, wlio 

 as he hatli most riglit to command, so best skill to 

 direct and appoint tlie best service I can." 



After an elaborate laudation of England, and of 

 London as the " gem and eye," which has 

 " the body of the King, the morning and midday in- 

 fluence of that glorious sun; other parts having hut 



the evening O fortunati nimium ; you 



have the finest flowre of the wheat, and purest bloud 

 of the grape, that is, the choice of His blessed Word 

 hath God given unto you ; and great is the compauie 

 of the preachers" — 



the Bishop proceeds thus : 



" Not to weary mine eyes with wandering and roving 

 after private, but to fixe upon puhllcke alone, — when 

 I behold that forrcst of masts upon jour river for 

 frafficke, and that move than miraculous bridge, which 

 is the communis termhnis, to joyne the two bankes of 

 that river; your Uoyall Exchange for merchants, your 

 Halls for Companies, your gates for defence, your 

 markets for victuall, your aqueducts for water, your 

 granaries for provision, your Hospitalls for the poore, 

 your Bridewells for the idle, your Cliamber for orphans, 

 and your Churches for holy assemblies; I cannot denie 

 them to be magnificent workes, and your Citty to de- 

 serve the name of an Augustious and m;ijesticall Citty; 

 to cast into the reckoning iho'-e of later edition, the 

 beautifying of your fields without, and pitching your 

 Smithfield within, new gates, new waterworkes, and 

 the like, whicli have been consecrated by you to the 

 dayes of his Majestie's liappy rcigne : and I hope the 

 cleansing of the River, which is the vena porta to your 

 Citty, will follow in good time. But alter all these, 

 as Christ to the young man in the Cospell, which had 

 done all and more, Unum tibi deest, fi vis jtcrfictus esse, 

 vade, vende ; so may I say to you. There is yet one 

 thing wanting unto you, if you will be pcrfit, — per.'it 

 this church : not by parting from all, but soniev/hat, 

 not to the poore, but to God himselfe. This Church 

 is your Sion indeed, other are but Si/nac/ogites, this 

 your Jerusalem the mother to them all, other but daugh- 

 ters In'ought uj) at her knees ; this the Cathedral!, other 

 but Parochiall Churches ; this the Bethel for the daily 

 and constant service of God, other have their inter- 

 missions, this the common to you all, and to this doe 



