210-German.-The words "Aus liebe," form a common motto for German souvenirs. The meaning is literally "Ont of love."

211-Steam Engine. P. H.-A very good stationary steam engine, of small power, sufficient to turn a lathe, grind coffee, &c., may be put up for about twenty pounds. 212-Parachute. W. G. W.-The name is derived from two French words (parer chute) signifying a guard against falling. [See Grandfather Whitehead's Lectures, Family Friend, vol. iii. p 9.]

213-Dancing H. S.-We are not acquainted with any book from which dancing may be learned without a master; it seems to us an art every step in which requires demonstration; the figures may of course be learned from print, after the terms applied to each series of steps are understood.

214-Telescopes. R. W. O.-Night telescopes, for use at sea, vary in price from two to five guineas. A very good mounted achromatic telescope, with both celestial and terrestrial eyepiece, may be had for from seven guineas upwards. A really excellent one costs from 250 to 300 guineas or more.

215-Queen. J. A.-The root of the word "queen" is probably the Saxon word epen, signifying a wife, and therefore was originally used to betoken the wife of the king. The use of the word as applied to a female sovereign in her own right, is an application of the term not originally contemplated. [See also p. 17.]

216-Rosicrusian.-A. D. alluding to App. 65, gives another derivation of the name, which he says was derived from the assumed fact that ros (dew), was the most powerful solvent of gold, and that light, of which the cross (crur) was the representative, was the producer of the precious metal.

217-Roger de Coverley. H.H.-This personage, whose name is so familiar to every one speaking the language of the Spectator, lived in the time of Richard I., was a person of much hospitality, and partial to minstrelsy. He possessed extensive lands at Calverley, in Yorkshire, called Harper's Spring, from the musical taste of the original proprietor.

218-Zoology-Entozoa. A. T and J. D.-The Entozoa are classed with the Radiata instead of the Articulata, because a great simplicity of structure is observed in most of them. (See Professor Owen's Lectures on Invertebrate Animals.) We cannot undertake to decide the question whether invertebrate animals possess intellect, or where the seat of it may be in them.

219-Hand-writing: How to Improve. H. B. —A patient student once having learned how to form the letters, by practising the imitation of good copies, will gradually obtain the power of writing well. Haste is the great enemy of caligraphy. The persons who advertise their powers of teaching, beautiful writing, do little more than make their pupils patiently practise copying.

220-New Zealand Far. F. L.-The fibre of the New Zealand flax, when divested of its outer coating, has an under-covering of gum or resin; the effect of this is, that when twisted into rope, and strained round any angular object, it breaks short at the bent point; it is otherwise of amazing strength for a steady pull. The ingenious have hitherto been baffled in every attempt to remove the gum. 221-Regiment. F.-The name regiment was introduced about 1583, (see Grose, Military Antiquities, vol. i. p. 348.) It is used to denote a body of troops, foot or horse, indefinite in number, who are under the control of a colonel, and fo m the second subdivision of an army. The union of two or more regiments forms a brigade, and two or more brigades make up a grand division, or corp d'armee.

222-Pronunciation. Bosom. J. A. J.-The word "bosom" is liable to mispronunciation of the first syllable in two opposite manners:-1st. By making the first syllabie too long, boo-sum: 2nd. By making it too short, buz-um. The middle course is correct, giving the first syllable shorter than in the first case, and longer than in the second (booz-um), with a sound closely approximating to the vowel sound in full."

223-Sterling. R. A. W. writes" In addition to the reply already given (109), I beg to mention, on the authority of Lower, that the word Easterling' was a name given to the inhabitants of any country eastward of England, particularly to those of the Hanse Towns. The pure coinage introduced by them in the time of Richard I., gave rise to the expression 'easterling' or 'sterling' money. Hence its subsequent use to signify anything genuine." 224-Triangle.-W. G W. inquires "whether it be possible to find the third sile of an acute or obtuse angled. triangle, (the two sides and contained angle being given)

without the aid of tables or mathematical instruments." It is not possible to do this without the labour requisite to form numerous tables which already exist, and which have been constructed for the express purpose of avoiding the labour of the long and intricate calculations-involving every possible chance of error-which would otherwise be incurred.

225-Study of Medicine. S. S. and J. H.-The following is the list of works recommended by the examiners in the university of St. Andrews -Wilson's Chemistry, (Chambers' Educational Course); Chrisiston's Dispensatory; Pereira's Materia Medica; the London, Edinburgh, or Dublin Pharmacopoeia; Quain's Elements of Anatomy; Carpenter's Physiology; Watson, On the Practice of Physic; Williams's Principles of Medicine; Vogel's Pathological Anatomy; Miller's Principles of Surgery; and Churchill on Midwifery.

226-National Debt. A. M.-The national debt is the amount of sums owing by a state to persons who have lent money to it to enable it to carry on wars and other operations. A stipulated interest is pai i to the national creditors or fundholders. The custom of borrowing money, and thus anticipating the available revenue for war purposes, was introduced in the reign of Willam III. Thus posterity is taxed, for wars of which perhaps it will disapprove. The total amount of the national debt of Great Britain is now upwards of seven hundred millions.

227-The Knights Templars. D. W.-The order flourished in Europe long after its annihilation in Syria. With the decline of the Christian power in the East, a severe struggle arose between the Templars, the supreme pontiff, and the absolute princes of Europe. In the year 12 8, Pope Innocent 111. passed a public censure upon the order. Proceedings against them were brought forward by various potentates; and in 1309 a public examination commenced in England, which lasted two years.

228-Natural Tangents.-O. inquires where he can get tables called "natural tangents," and complains that he has gone to some expense, and has failed to obtain what he requires. For ordinary practical purposes, the tables published by the Society for the Diffusion of Knowledge, will be found quite sufficient. (Taylor & Walton, London, 38.) They are carried to five places of decimals. To persons engaged in extensive calculations, however, Hutton's Mathematical Tables are essential. The natural and logarithmic ratios are in that work carried to seven places of decimais.

229-Junius. J. A. A generally received opinion is, that Sir Philip Francis was the author of the celebrated letters of Junius. The question is argued in Mr. Bohn's recent publication, and an able review of that work in one of the numbers of the Atheneum, for the early part of 1830. In Frazer's Magazine for June, 1845, page 693, Richard Glover is named as a reputed author. Among the various persons to whom the letters have been attributed, we find the Duke of Portland, Lord George Sackvi le, Mr. Burke, Mr. Dunning, the Rev. J. Horne Tooke, Mr. Hugh Boyd, Dr. Wilmot, &c. Mackintosh says, "That the work, entitled The Identity of Junius with a Distinguished Living Character established, proves Sir Philip Francis to be Junius, we will not affirm; but this we can safely assert, that it accumulates such a mass of circumstantial evidence, as renders it extremely difficult to believe he is not; and that if so many coincidences shall have been found to have misled us in this case, our faith in all conclusions drawn from proofs of a similar kind, may henceforth be shaken." Sir Philip Francis, however, never acknowledged the authorship; he died in Dec. 1818.

230-Shakspere. Several correspondents inquire which is the proper way to spell the name of the great Shakspere. The question is one which it is probable was frequently considered by the poet, his ancestors, and friends, and upon which during his life there were diderent opinions. The argument has been ably stated by Mr. Charles Knight, in his biography of Shakspere, a volume to which we turn with ever new delight. The spelling which we adopt is that which is preferred by Mr. Knight. Mr. Collier, who is a high authority, however, differs, and retains the a in the last syllable. Stevens and Malone thought that they had authority for the spelling-Shakspeare; yet Malone in his Inquiry, published in 1796, says, In the year 1776, Mr. Stevens, in my presence, traced with the utmost accuracy the three signatures affixed by the poet to his will. While two of these manifestly appeared to us Skakspere, we conceived that in the third there was a variation; and that in the second syllable an a was found." In a small folio volume-the first edition of Florio's Translation of Montaigne-an autograph has been discovered. The volume is deposited in the British Museum; the autograph confirms Mr. Knight's opinion"

of the mode of spelling. Malone says, "It is manifest that he wrote it himself Shakspere, and, therefore, if any original letter or other MS. of his shall be discovered, his name will appear in that form.

231-A Fool's Day. R. S. Much difference of opinion prevails as to the origin of the pleasantry commonly practised on the 1st of April. It was the octave or last day of the Hilaria, or feasts of merriment kept in ancient Rome on the Equinox, and devoted to Cybele, the mother of the gods, whose shrine her priests then purified with the waters of the Almo. The rites consisted in feasting, and a general freedom from restraint. Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, speaking of "the first of April, or the ancient feast of the vernal equinox, equally observed in India and Britain," says, that this day was observed as a high festival, in celebration of the sun entering into the sign Aries, the new year." Colonel Pearce, in his Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p 334, proves that the habit of making April fools is an immemorial custom among the Hindoos, at a celebrated festival holden about the same period in India, which is called the Huli festival. Platt, in his Manners and Customs, says "The least inquiry into the ancient customs of Persia, or the minutest acquaintance with the general astronomical mythology of Asia, would show that the boundless hilarity and jocund sports prevalent on the first day of April in England and during the Huli festival of India, have their origin in the ancient practice of celebrating with festival rites the period of the vernal equinox, or the day when the new year of Persia anciently began."

232-Tides. A. M.-It is only in the Southern Ocean, between the latitudes of thirty and seventy degrees, that a zone of water exists of sufficient extent to allow of the tide-wave being fully formed. Suppose then a line of contemporary tides or co-tidal line be formed in the Indian Ocean, as this tide-wave passes the Cape of Good Hope, it sends off a derivative undulation which advances northwards up the Atlantic Ocean, where it assumes a curved form, the edges lagging behind, on the shores of America and Africa. The main tide, it is supposed, after reaching the Orkneys, will move forward in the sea bounded by the shores of Norway and Siberia on the one side, and those of Greenland upon the other; and, passing the pole of the earth, end its course on the shores in the neighbourhood of Behring's Straits. A branch tide is, however, sent off from the main wave into the German Ocean, and this entering between the Orkneys and the coast of Norway, brings the tide to the east coast of England, and to the coasts of Holland, Denmark, and Germany. Continuing its course, part of it passes through the Straits of Dover, and, with diminished force, meets the next tide from the Atlantic, which arrives on the coast of Europe twelve hours later. In passing the English coast, moreover, a branch wave is sent from the coast of Norfolk to the north coast of Germany, meeting again the tidewave on the coast of Denmark. Owing to this interference of the tidal waves, there are no tides on the coast of Jutland, where there is always high water. In the Pacific Ocean the tides are small, and in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas so inconsidérable and irregular, that it has been stated that there are no tides in those seas, and that the risings and failings of the waters were due to winds, &c. The Indian Ocean appears to have tides on all sides at once, while the central part is depressed. The tide is said to be two days and a half old when it reaches London, because that length of time elapses between the formation of the tidal wave and its arrival.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

4-Blackboards, &c.-U. E. F. writing from a large school, says: The principal of this establishment has tried chalk, red-pencils, &c., for writing on the blackboard, but finds the best thing he can use is pipe-clay, which he has prepared for him about the thickness and length of a cedar pencil. In France we always use

crayons."

17-Quotation.-G. H. P. writes:-" J. H. C. has not correctly quoted the line, which occurs in Pope's Moral Essays, Epistle 3rd, Verse 1st. The couplet runs thus:

Who shall decide when doctors disagree,

And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?'"' `18-Caif's Head.-R. R. B. writes from Wolverhampton, stating that the custom of eating calf's head on the 30th of January does not appear to prevail in Lancashire or the adjoining counties. He surmises that the custom arose among the more virulent opponents of Charles I., and was adopted as a derisive commemoration of his decapitation on that day.

20-Covering Wire.-W. W. (101, Bradford Road, Manchester) states that machines for this purpose may be seen at work at Francis Ford's, Pott Street, New Islington, Manchester. The price is stated to be £10.

22-Punch. Our obliging correspondent T. B. J. writes, in answer to G. W., as follows:-Pulcinella seems to have been created by one Silvio Fiorilla, a comedian, at Acerra, near Naples, about the year 1600. The plot of the play seems never to have been fixed, but has always changed with the times, the great object being popularity. Punch was a favourite in England during the reign of Queen Anne, and it would appear, that he had made his first appearance in this country shortly before the commencement of her reign (1702). G. W. is under a mistake when he supposes that the plot never changes, for it would appear that our present drama of Punch had its rise so late as 1787, when "Don Juan" had such a run on the English stage-the character of Punch being evidently copied from that hero. Since that time many changes have been introduced, and forgotten; for instance, after the Battle of the Nile, Lord Nelson figured in Punch, trying to persuade that grotesque gentleman to become a sailor. Sir F. Burdett had the same honour during a disputed election for Westminster; and incidents have been borrowed in this minor theatre from "Tom and Jerry," "Blue Beard," "The Forty Thieves," "Mother Goose," &c. In Italy, at the present day, Punch seems to be employed as a vehicle for caricaturing the follies of misfortunes of the rival states; thus, in North Italy, have seen an unfortunate Swiss peasant, with an enormous goître hanging like a second head at his neck, introduced, that the Italian peasant might have a laugh at his less fortunate neighbour.

24-Obsolete Law.-G. P. writes as follows:-"The statutes 1st & 2nd Ph. & M., cap. 4, and 5 Eliz. cap. 20, inflicting capital punishment upon gypsies remaining one month in this kingdom, and on all persons being fourteen years old and upwards, (whether natural born subjects or strangers,) which should be found in the fellowship of gypsies, or should disguise themselves like gypsies, and remain in the same one month at one or several times, are repealed; the former by 1 Geo. IV., cap. 116, and the latter by 23 Geo. III., cap. 51. And the Vagrant Act, 17 Geo. II., cap. 5, declares, 'that all persons pretending to be gypsies, or wandering in the habit or form of Egyp tians, shall be deemed rogues and vagabonds.' But all such persons are now punishable as idle and disorderly persons, by 5 Geo. IV., cap. 83. Sir Matthew Hale informs us, that at one Suffolk Assizes, no less than thirteen gypsies were executed, upon the two first-mentioned statutes, a few years before the Restoration. But I find no mention of persons merely holding fellowship with them having been executed."

QUESTIONS REQUIRING ANSWERS. 25-Auld Reekie. F. S. S.-Why is Edinburgh called by this name?

26-Indian Club Exercise. A.-What is the proper length and weight of the clubs ?

27-Steam Power.-R. F. K inquires how he can cal culate the size of a boiler necessary for a steam engine. 28-College Expenses. J. W. P.-What are the expenses of education in the Scotch universities, and can a student pursue a trade during the period of his atten dance on lectures?

29-College Expenses. St. Bees. R. B.-What are the expenses of a student at St. Bees' College, and is there any college more suitable for a person twenty-four years of age, who wishes to enter the ministry of the church of England?

30-Educational Training. W. G.-Is there any institution in the north of England for the training of schoolmasters not holding views in conformity with the Church of England A. A. B. on the other hand, writes to ask, "What is the best and least expensive mode of educating my son, fourteen years old, for the church; and what institution can be recommended where pure evangelical principles are inculcated?

31-Mutual Instruction.-J. K. proposes that there shall be formed, through the Family Tutor, a plan for mutual instruction of students, similar to that adopted by the teachers of phonography. The names of persons willing to correct exercises in grammar, or answer simple ques tions in science, &c. through the post, he suggests, shall be published in our columns; the pupils to prepay their letters, and enclose sufficient stamps to pay the postage of replies.