INTONITANS BOLUS. Greek, [Greek: bolos], a lump. Latin, bolus, a bit, a morsel. English, bolus, a mass of anything made into a large pill. It may be translated a thundering pill. At Harvard College, the Intonitans Bolus was a great cane or club which was given nominally to the strongest fellow in the graduating class; "but really," says a correspondent, "to the greatest bully," and thus was transmitted, as an entailed estate, to the Samsons of College. If any one felt that he had been wronged in not receiving this emblem of valor, he was permitted to take it from its possessor if he could. In later years the club presented a very curious appearance; being almost entirely covered with the names of those who had held it, carved on its surface in letters of all imaginable shapes and descriptions. At one period, it was in the possession of Richard Jeffrey Cleveland, a member of the class of 1827, and was by him transmitted to Jonathan Saunderson of the class of 1828. It has disappeared within the last fifteen or twenty years, and its hiding-place, even if it is in existence, is not known.

See BULLY CLUB.

INVALID'S TABLE. At Yale College, in former times, a table at which those who were not in health could obtain more nutritious food than was supplied at the common board. A graduate at that institution has referred to the subject in the annexed extract. "It was extremely difficult to obtain permission to board out, and indeed impossible except in extreme cases: the beginning of such permits would have been like the letting out of water. To take away all pretext for it, an 'invalid's table' was provided, where, if one chose to avail himself of it, having a doctor's certificate that his health required it, he might have a somewhat different diet."—Scenes and Characters in College, New Haven, 1847, pp. 117, 118.

J.

JACK-KNIFE. At Harvard College it has long been the custom for the ugliest member of the Senior Class to receive from his classmates a Jack-knife, as a reward or consolation for the plainness of his features. In former times, it was transmitted from class to class, its possessor in the graduating class presenting it to the one who was deemed the ugliest in the class next below.

Mr. William Biglow, a member of the class of 1794, the recipient for that year of the Jack-knife,—in an article under the head of "Omnium Gatherum," published in the Federal Orrery, April 27, 1795, entitled, "A Will: Being the last words of CHARLES CHATTERBOX, Esq., late worthy and much lamented member of the Laughing Club of Harvard University, who departed college life, June 21, 1794, in the twenty-first year of his age,"—presents this transmittendum to his successor, with the following words:—

"Item. C—— P——s[41] has my knife,
During his natural college life;
That knife, which ugliness inherits,
And due to his superior merits,
And when from Harvard he shall steer,
I order him to leave it here,
That't may from class to class descend,
Till time and ugliness shall end."

Mr. Prentiss, in the autumn of 1795, soon after graduating, commenced the publication of the Rural Repository, at Leominster, Mass. In one of the earliest numbers of this paper, following the example of Mr. Biglow, he published his will, which Mr. Paine, the editor of the Federal Orrery, immediately transferred to his columns with this introductory note:—"Having, in the second number of 'Omnium Gatherum' presented to our readers the last will and testament of Charles Chatterbox, Esq., of witty memory, wherein the said Charles, now deceased, did lawfully bequeath to Ch——s Pr——s the celebrated 'Ugly Knife,' to be by him transmitted, at his college demise, to the next succeeding candidate; ———— and whereas the said Ch——s Pr——s, on the 21st of June last, departed his aforesaid college life, thereby leaving to the inheritance of his successor the valuable legacy which his illustrious friend had bequeathed, as an entailed estate, to the poets of the university,—we have thought proper to insert a full, true, and attested copy of the will of the last deceased heir, in order that the world may be furnished with a correct genealogy of this renowned Jack-knife, whose pedigree will become as illustrious in after time as the family of the 'ROLLES,' and which will be celebrated by future wits as the most formidable weapon of modern genius."

That part of the will only is here inserted which refers particularly to the Knife. It is as follows:—

"I—I say I, now make this will;
Let those whom I assign fulfil.
I give, grant, render, and convey
My goods and chattels thus away;
That honor of a college life,
That celebrated UGLY KNIFE,
Which predecessor SAWNEY[42] orders,
Descending to time's utmost borders,
To noblest bard of homeliest phiz,
To have and hold and use, as his,
I now present C——s P——y S——r,[43]
To keep with his poetic lumber,
To scrape his quid, and make a split,
To point his pen for sharpening wit;
And order that he ne'er abuse
Said ugly knife, in dirtier use,
And let said CHARLES, that best of writers,
In prose satiric skilled to bite us,
And equally in verse delight us,
Take special care to keep it clean
From unpoetic hands,—I ween.
And when those walls, the muses' seat,
Said S——r is obliged to quit,
Let some one of APOLLO'S firing,
To such heroic joys aspiring,
Who long has borne a poet's name,
With said Knife cut his way to fame."
See Buckingham's Reminiscences, Vol. II. pp. 281, 270.