WAFER. 



WAGER. 



014 



in the middle of syllables with the power of Towel. The map of 

 Wale* will famish abundant example*, u Pwlheli, Cwmtydr, Bettwi, 

 Llwehwr. often written Loughor, *c. 



Many nation* hare a difficulty in pronouncing the consonantal . 

 This i* more particularly the case in tome part* of Germany, where 

 the people are unable to appreciate the difference between a v and a r, 

 almost always ulitittiting the Utter sound, or what nearly appronohm 

 to it. Hence it i* important for the philologist to distrust the evidence 

 and criticism of a German icholar when these sounds are in question ; 

 and this caution may be more particularly given in reference to 

 German writings upon the Sanskrit language. London too i* remark- 

 able for the confusion of the sounds, though this confusion doe* not 

 earn to arise from any inability to pronounce either a w or a r, each 

 being substituted for the other with a most amusing perversity. 



The other interchanges of thin letter have been already given under 

 the preceding letters. See C. $ 4 and 7 ; O, $ 6 ; H, 7; M, 5 ; O, 

 S 11 ; R, 8 ; 8, g 11 ; and DHIAMMA. 



WAFER, a small round piece of dried paste, which is used to fasten 

 letters. The host, as given to laymen at the sacrament in the Romish 

 Church, and the piece of consecrated cake given in extreme unc- 

 tion, is also called a wafer, and it is recommended to be swallowed 

 whole if possible. Thin cake formed into a roll, and called wafers, is 

 till sold by pastrycooks. In fact the word was used in England to 

 signify a thin cake long before wafers for sealing letters were invented. 



Wafrl a the name given by the Germans to a thin cake made with 

 flour, eggs, sugar, 4c. ; the Dutch call such a cake waftl, and the Danes 

 taffel. The trench call it gaufre. The French name for a wafer is 

 MIIB d carhrttr, and wafers are paint d cacheter. The Anglo-Saxons 

 also had the name icaffel. 



To make common wafers, a liquid paste is mode with flour and cold 

 water, very smooth ; and colouring matter U then mixed with it. The 

 baking is done with an instrument similar to that which is used to 

 make yaufra and va/tla. It consists of two thin plates of iron ; the 

 upper plate closes upon the lower, which is made with a ledge, and 

 thus forms a mould for the paste. Both plates having been warmed 

 and greased to prevent adhesion, some of the liquid paste is poured 

 into the lower plate, and the upper plate is then shut down, which 

 force* out any superfluous paste and forms the rest into a thin and 

 even layer. The instrument which is held by a handle like that of a 

 frying pan, is placed for a few moments over a fire, and the sheet of 

 baked paste is then taken out and dried in the air, when it becomes 

 firm and brittle, and is cut with a suitable instrument into wafers. 



Gelatine or trainpartnt va/eri are thus made. Good gelatine or 

 glue is dissolved in warm water. The mixture, while etui warm, is 

 poured on a warm and slightly oiled glass plate, having a bordering 

 formed of slips of cardboard ; another warm plate is laid on it, and 

 pressed. When cold, the gelatine is removed in a very thin, semi- 

 transparent sheet, and is cut into small pieces of the proper shape by 

 means of a punch. Sometimes a little sugar is added to the gelatine. 



Malalliun uafart have a device in cameo or relief. The device is 

 first engraved in intaglio on a metal plate. A paste is then made of 

 any convenient powder mixed with gum-water or size ; a background 

 U formed of melted coloured gelatine ; and the two are so applied to 

 the engraving a* to lead to the production of a sheet of medallion 

 wafers, which are separated Vy cutting or punching. 



\V AOKR In a wager or bet, two parties stake money against each 

 other on the happening or failure of a certain event : A is to pay a 

 certain sum to B if the event happen one way ; and B is to pay a 

 certain sum to A if the event happen the other way. Thus, if John 

 bet Thomas three to one (in pounds) that he will win the game, and it 

 turn out that he doe* win the game, he (John) is to receive one pound 

 from Thomas ; but if John should not win the game, Thomas is to 

 receive three pounds from John. 



The principle of a wager exists in a great multitude of transactions 

 which do not bear the name : in fact, every commercial affair in which 

 money is risked upon a possibility of receiving more than legal interest 

 in consideration of that risk, is a wager. Thus, if John lend Thomas 

 KXH. to engage hi an adventure, knowing that he can receive nothing 

 if it fail, and in consideration of 150/ if it succeed, it is a wager of the 

 following kind. If the money be out a year, and John could safely 

 make five per cent, of it, he risks 1U.V. in case of lorn, and is to receive 

 tbt. in that of gain ; so that in fact it is as if John bet Thomas 105 to 

 46. that the speculation would succeed. For if we were to suppose 

 that John lends Thomas lOOf. for a year at five per cent, on good 

 security, and make* the above wager besides, they will be found to bo 

 in exactly the position originally described. 



A fire insurance is a simple wager between the office and the party ; 

 and a life assurance is a collection of wagers. There is something of 

 the principle of a wager in every transaction in which the results of a 

 future event are to bring gain or Ion. And in every game of chance, 

 we have a wager or a collection of wagers, whenever money is staked. 



Much ha* been written and said upon the morality of wagers, in 

 which the word i* understood in iU common acceptation, namely, that 

 there is nothing but a stake of money, made in a manner which has no 

 reference to commercial advantage, and no tendency to promote the 

 physical well-being of the community. It is however exceedingly 

 difficult to draw the line between the pure wager, which i* nothing 

 else, and the commercial wager. The loan of John to Thomas, above 



described, may be a useful transaction : it may give the country a new 

 mine or a new market. But it does not follow that the pure wager, or 

 a case which is generally so considered, may not be also useful It 

 were to be wished that, In considering this matter, the right and wrong 

 of the transaction itself should be always carefully separated from the 

 tendency of the collateral circumstance* connected with it. One or 

 two instances will explain our meaning. 



A horse-racer and a stock-jobber are two of the character* which ara 

 set down in public opinion as mere gamblers, and so ara a billiard- 

 player and a hazard-player. All four are considered to belong t" tin- 

 same class. Now it is true that the occupations of all but the second 

 are generally connected with much that is objectionable, and which, 

 though not necessarily attached to their mode of life, are so frequently 

 consequent upon it, that the strength of the tendency is sufficient to 

 justify the warning which writers upon morals give against the punmit 

 of gambling. And among all the four descriptions of characters are to 

 be found the full proportion of those whose society is not coveted by a 

 very respectable minority of the nation. But though many a man 

 bom to better things has been ruined by each of the four pursuit*, it 

 would be unjust to say that there is no distinction between them. We 

 doubt whether billiards or hazard ever were the cause of any benefit 

 to society ; the wager which ends in a wager seems to be the proper 

 description of both. But horse-racing has at least improved the breed 

 of horses ; and, as business is now transacted, it is due to the stock- 

 jobber that funded property can be turned into money, or rife vend, at 

 any moment of the year. We do not mean to say that the > 

 which changes hands on the course might not be much more eftY 

 employed in the improvement of horses, or that it might not be prac- 

 ticable to effect modes of rapidly realising or investing without the 

 concomitant of gambling. All we wish to illustrate is the fact, that 

 innumerable classes of wagers are mixed up with the transact] 

 society, from those which are essential to its existence, through those 

 which are of mixed harm and good, up to those which are but dubious 

 in their very best cases 



A wager is fairly laid when the odds are proportional to the proba- 

 bilities of the event happening or failing. Thus if it be four to one 

 against the happening of an event, the better who bets that it will m>t 

 happen should offer four to one. In the long run such an event will 

 fail four times where it happens once, and the better will receive a 

 pound four times for every occasion on which he pays four pouixU 

 once. But suppose a person should continually oflcr only three to one 

 upon a contingency on which it is four to one he wins. In the long 

 run he will, upon every five bets, receive one pound four times, and 

 pay three pounds once : he will therefore win one pound on every five 

 beta. Algebraically thus : let the odds for his winning be a to b, 

 while these which he offers are m to n; in a + 6 trials, one set with 

 another, he will wiu n pounds a times, or na, while he will lose m 

 pounds 6 times, or mb. If iia equals mb, the wager is fair on both 

 sides ; if tut be greater than mb, it is unduly favourable to the better ; 

 if no be less than mb, it is unduly against him. 



There are many cases in which doubt may arise as to whether a 

 wager is fair, and also as to how it is to be interpreted. With respect 

 to the latter it is or ought to be clear, that if both parties understood 

 the wager in one sense, that one sense is the fair interpretation : but 

 that if either of the parties understood the wager in one certain sense, 

 and the other party knew that he understood it in that sense, no sub- 

 sequent attempt at a different interpretation should be admitted on 

 the part of that other party. We are told that this rule is widely 

 departed from ; and that under cover of adherence to literal significa- 

 tion of words, interpretations are permitted which offer inducements 

 to what we must call attempts at fraud. Thus, it is said, that v. li><n 

 the better undertook to nm across a bridge in an incredibly small 

 time, and had his bet accepted, he was permitted to win by running 

 from one parapet to the other, which was held to be crossing the 

 bridge, in the same manner as going from one footpath to the other is 

 held to be crossing a street Here it is clear that the party accepting 

 the bet understood that the other was to cross the water upon the 

 bridge, which is the true meaning of going across a bridge ; and it is 

 also clear that the better knew he was taken in that sense. An 

 adherence to the literal meaning of a wager is, of course, necessary in 

 all cases of doubtful meaning, but there is no language in which the 

 literal meaning of a sentence is always made up of those of the words 

 put together. 



A wager is not fair unless the point in doubt be clearly the same to 

 both parties, and unless there be no concealed knowledge in the pos- 

 session of either. The latter is included in the former, as an instance 

 will show. John bets Thomas that the ship Hope ia arrived in dock 

 from Jamaica before the time at which the bet is laid ; his manner 

 implies that he has formed the conclusion from his knowledge of the 

 time at which the Hope was to sail, of the properties of the vessel, of 

 the prevailing weather, Ac. : if his manner tell truth, the wager is fair 

 Or his manner implies that he may be in possession of particular in- 

 formation, that he may have seen the captain, &c. ; it says, " Min.l. I 

 do not tell you what my reasons are, all I tell you is the fact : " still 

 the wager is fair. If Thomas dispute, he knows in cither case what he 

 disputes, be it the question of the Hope's rate of sailing, or the good- 

 nes* of John's inference from his particular knowledge. But if John, 

 actually knowing of tho Hope's arrival, should lead Thomas into a 



