182 
it seems strange*' to find no asterisk to Art. 861 at p. 590 
(vol, ii.) of his copious Index, which might well be a model 
to authors of similar works. 
2, Sandringham Gardens, Ealing, near London, W., 
April 9, 1880. 
“On the History of the word Telegraph,” by William 
E. A. Axon, M.E.S.L., &c. 
There has been considerable interest manifested this year 
in the history of the word telegraph. Mr. Warren de la 
Eue states in Nature that the earliest instance he can find 
of its English use is in the edition of Johnson’s Dictionary 
issued in 1818 ; and he quotes from Eees’s Encyclopsedia 
an account of the machines for signalling which were em- 
ployed by order of the French Directory in 1798. There 
can be no doubt that we borrowed the word from the 
French, and the Manchester Guardian has recalled an 
instance of its early use in a literary form in this locality. 
“Tim Bobbin the Second” was the pseudonym of Eobert 
Walker, of Little Moss, who wrote in the Manchester 
Gazette of about 1795 some dialogues in the Lancashire 
dialect with great natural humour and a very great power 
of faithful portraiture of the condition and speech of the 
poorer classes in the county palatine. These sketches were 
afterwards republished under the title of “Plebeian Politics,” 
and one of the best known passages in it is that relating 
the story of the Saddleworth Shouting Telegraph. Walker 
^ Nor does it seem less strange wLen, in his footnote at p. 596 of vol. ii.^ 
we find Du Bourguet saying “ When, as in this chapter, nearly all the 
articles ought to he preceded by asterisks, we shall content ourselves 
with putting one or two asterisks, according to the importance of the 
subject, before the title of the chapter.” He is here referring to chapter 
IV. of Section III , but it is in chapter IV. of Section II. that Art. 361 
is contained. In a footnote at page 20 of vol. i. he refers to the TMorie 
of Lagrange, whom he alludes to (p. 212) or mentions (p. 483) subse- 
quently in vol. i. and mentions in vol ii. (pp. 336, 471, 475, 481 and 502), 
but not in connection with the Proposition. The quotations in this com- 
munication are, of course, translations. — J. 0. 
