360 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



Hall " would have furnished Randolph Caldecott with 

 inspiration for a Christmas picture story ; and so, indeed, 

 would the country round the " Hall," with its vast sandy 

 tract, ten miles long, known as Hollesley Heath, ending 

 on the seashore near Orford Castle. 



The misleading indication as to the native land of an 

 animal due to the name commonly applied to it is 

 remarkable in the case of the guinea-pig. Though the 

 guinea-fowl is correctly so called, since it comes from the 

 Guinea Coast of Africa, the guinea-pig has nothing to do 

 with that coast, but comes from South America ! It is 

 not a pig, but a rodent, and it does not come from 

 Guinea. It appears that the ships of the " Guinea 

 merchants " of this country established trading relations 

 with South American ports, and hence the little " pig " 

 (Shakespeare calls the hedgehog " hedge-pig ") which 

 they brought home was called a " guinea-pig," just as 

 the big " cock " imported by Turkey merchants was 

 called a " Turkey-cock." The guinea-pig suffers other 

 " indignities of appellation." The Germans call him 

 Meersckweinchen, that is, " little sea-pig." Apparently 

 " sea " pig, because he was brought over the sea. But 

 this leads to unjustifiable suggestions as to the guinea- 

 pig's character. For the Germans call the porpoise 

 Meerschwein, which would seem to mean "pig of the 

 sea " ; and those imperfectly acquainted with the German 

 language have been known to take allusions made by 

 German writers to the former animal as intended to 

 apply to the young of the latter. Thus one reads in an 

 English medical book of a number of " young porpoises " 

 being fed upon carrots when it was really " guinea-pigs " 

 which consumed this nutriment. The German physi- 

 ologists, who often make use of guinea-pigs in their 

 investigations, now call them Cobayas, so as to avoid 

 any further misunderstanding. The French word for a 



