Worm in Books (Vol. viii., p. 412.).—Alethis is presented with the following recipe from a very curious old French book of receipts and secrets for everything connected with arts and trades. Put some powdered colocynth into a phial, and cover the mouth with parchment pierced with holes. With this the books should be powdered, and from time to time beaten to drive out the powder, when the same process must be repeated.
F. C. H.
Chapel Sunday (Vol. vii., p. 527.).—Not having received an answer to my Query of the origin of the celebration of Chapel Sunday in the Lake district, I would venture a surmise which some Cumbrian antiquary will perhaps correct, if wrong. I take it to be the day in honour of the patron saint of the chapel: and now, when such festivals are little observed, it has been changed to the nearest Sunday. In this thinly populated district, and where, from its mountainous and rugged character, travelling before the formation of the present good roads was neither agreeable nor (probably) safe, "at chapel" was the only time many of the inhabitants saw each other. Meeting, therefore, on so auspicious a day as that of the patron saint, might in "merrie time" of old induce a little festivity.
Prestoniensis.
Bishop Inglis of Nova Scotia (Vol. vii., p. 263.).—According to a short biography in the Documentary History of New York, vol. iii. p. 1066., this prelate was born A.D. 1734. His birth-place is not mentioned. Some letters and other writings by him may be found in the fourth volume of the same work.
Uneda.
Philadelphia.
Gutta Percha made soluble (Vol. ix., p. 350.).—E. B. can procure at any chemist's establishment a solution of gutta percha in chloroform, which may answer the purpose required by him. It is used by medical men as a dressing for abrasion in the skin of bed-ridden persons, and is applied with a camel's-hair brush. It hardens on being applied, and produces an artificial skin, which saves the patient from farther suffering in the place to which it has been applied.
Experto Crede.
Naphtha will render gutta percha soluble; and if needed to be used as a varnish, it is only necessary to make a solution in a closed vessel, and apply it with a brush. The naphtha will evaporate and leave a thin coating of firmly-adhering gutta percha behind.