copy is in the British Museum; one is also in my possession.
I presume that there were other editions between the years 1663 and 1689.
H. P.
Divining-rod (Vol. viii., p. 293.).—For a full account of the divining rod see La Physique occulte, ou Traité de la Baguette Divinatoire, &c., par Père L. de Vallemont, a work by no means uncommon, having passed through several editions. Mine is "à Paris, chez Jean Boudot, avec priv. 1709, in 12o. avec figures," with the addition of a "Traité de la Connoissance des Causes Magnétiques, &c., par un Curieux."
A Cornish lady informs me that the Cornish miners to this day use the divining-rod in the way represented in fig. 1. of the above-mentioned work.
R. J. R.
In the 351st number of the Monthly Magazine, dated March 1st, 1821, there is a letter to the editor from W. Partridge, dated Boxbridge, Gloucester, giving several instances of his having successfully used the divining-rod for the purpose of discovering water. He says the gift is not possessed by more than one in two thousand, and attributes the power to electricity. Those persons in whose hands it will work must possess a redundancy of that fluid. He also states that metals are discovered by the same means.
K. B.
Slow-worm Superstition (Vol. vii., p. 33.).—The belief that the slow-worm cannot die until sunset prevails in Dorsetshire. In the New Forest the same superstition exists with regard to the brown adder. Walking in the heathy country between Beaulieu and Christ Church I saw a very large snake of this kind, recently beaten to death by the peasant boys, and on remarking that the lower jaw continued to move convulsively, I was told it would do so "till the moon was up."
An aged woman, now deceased, who had when young been severely bitten by a snake, told me she always felt a severe pain and swelling near where the wound had been, on the anniversary of the occurrence. Is this common? and can it be accounted for?