. ir. OCT. is, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
315
the right hand raised, the other with the left.
The bed is supported by four feet, which
bear the Isis head, hawk's head, dog's head,
and a human head, the symbols of the four
healing divinities, Isis, Osiris, Anubis, and
Horus. Other hieroglyphics on a talisman,
bearing similar representations, are men-
tioned, and upon other mummies, where
standing figures touch the feet, the head, the
sides, or the thighs, and many other magnetic
-actions are represented ; these are reproduced
in Montfaucon and in Denon's 'Voyage
d'Egypte.'
These scenes do not stand alone. Figures occur on the amulets or charms know as "Abraxas," all more or less manifesting an -acquaintance with magnetism. The priest with the dog's head or mask occurs repeatedly, with his hands variously placed on the sup- posed patient. Some of these figures are given by Montfaucon. In one of them the masked figure places one hand on the feet, the other on the head of the patient ; in -a second, one hand is laid upon the stomach, the other upon the head ; in a third the hands are upon the loins ; in a fourth the hands are placed upon the thighs, and the eyes of the operator fixed upon the patient's counte- nance. All these representations were in- volved in mystery till magnetism was rediscovered by Frederick Anthony Mesmer.
CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D. Baltimore House, Bradford.
^ DISPROPORTION OF SEXES (10 th S. ii. 209). Statistics from many sources show that the rule is for 105 boys to be born for 100 girls. Boys, however, die more easily during birth and early childhood ; hence at a nubile age there are found to be 100 women to 95 men, which proportion is soon lowered as the result of accidents, of enlistment in the navy and army, and of the absence of the seafaring classes from home. This inquiry has a per- tinent bearing upon the physiological basis of such Protectorate laws as that for the .enforcement of continence (1650).
MEDIC ULUS.
44 SUN AND ANCHOR " INN (10 th S. i. 504 ; ii. 92, 132). This sign has the appearance of having been originally either the "Sun" or the " Anchor " alone, receiving the addition of one or the other on the incoming of a new tenant, who for old association's sake wished to preserve the memory of his former cogni- sance. A retired seafaring landlord would naturally adopt such a sign as that of the "Ship," the "Anchor," &c., not only as a matter of fancy on his own part, but to attract the custom of mariners who were on
the look-out for a comfortable hostelry during
their sojurn ashore. The sign frequently
occurs as the Anchor and Cable," or the
"Rope and Anchor," when it doubtless
appertained to the badge of the Admiralty,
and was represented with a piece of cable
twined round the stem. In the scarce print
of Fish Street Hill and the Monument, in
which the signs are distinctly affixed to the
houses, the "Anchor and Cable" is the fourth
house from the Monument towards East-
cheap. The "Anchor and Gun" at Wool-
wich was well known to the Custom-House
officers as a receiving place for smuggled
goods (see London Journal, 2 September,
1721). And when the old Navy Office stood
in Crutched Friars and Seething Lane there
was a "Blue Anchor" close by. And so
to-day many signs of the " Anchor " and
"Blue Anchor" will be found in the neigh-
bourhood of the parts where those engaged
in the river traffic find it necessary to fix
their residence.
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
MINERAL WELLS, STREATHAM (10 th S. ii. 228). Lewis, in his ' Topographical Dic- tionary of England,' 1831, remarks :
"Among the attractions is a mineral spring, which was discovered in 1660, and is still held in esteem, being highly efficacious in scorbutic erup- tions, and in many other cases."
The Surrey Magazine, 1902, says :
the waters of which were noted in the eighteen ti
century, for we read that in 1701, during the
summer, there was a concert at the Wells, and
Streatham was alive with a gay and frivolous crowd
of elegant ladies of all ranks, while the bewigged
male frequenters of the Wells, and escorts of the
fair dames, drank their nasty draughts, discussing
the while the late ousting of the Whigs in the
House of Commons and the death of the exiled
James II. And in the Pott Boy newspaper for
June 8th, 1717, we find the following advertisement :
' The true Streatham waters fresh every morning,
only at Child's Coffee House in St. Paul's Church-
yard, the Garter Coffee House, behind the Royal
Exchange. Whoever buys it at any other place will
be imposed upon. N.B. All gentlemen and ladies
may find good entertainment at the Wells aforesaid
by Thomas Lambert."
Assemblies were held here so late as 1755. The memory of the wells survives in the name of Wells Lane.
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.
At the bottom of Wells Lane, on Lime Common, lie the Streatham Wells, a saline spring, now in little repute. The original wells were near the house still called Well House. Aubrey gives a quaint account of them :
