218
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL MAECH is, 1907.
onwards to establish " public offices " else-
where. A careful study of the copious
authorities quoted will no doubt establish
the use of the term " public office " early
in the eighteenth century. Dublin appa-
rently had public offices in 1786.
R. S. B.
THIBKELL FAMILY (10 S. vi. 229). Your correspondent will find references to pedi- grees of this family in Marshall's ' Genea- logist's Guide,' 1903, p. 769, sub Thirkeld and Thirkell.
The name Threlkeld occurs in the registers of Hebburn, Northumberland, from 1732 to 1758, and relates to those of Morpeth and Tritlington.
The following notes of the name may be of interest :
1. A Chas. Thirkill witnessed a marriage at Ryton, Durham, in 1757.
2. Elizabeth Thirkill, of Hampsthwaite, Yorks, married Wm. Colbeck, of Ripley, by banns, at the former place, 20 Aug., 1729.
3. Thomas Thirkhill was buried from the workhouse in Kippax Churchyard, Yorks, 7 June, 1810.
The name " Thirkyld " appears on p. 189, vol. xi. of The Ancestor.
CHAS. HALL CBOUCH. 5, Grove Villas, Wanstead.
SPELLING CHANGES (10 S. vi. 403, 450, 493 ; vii. 51, 171). MB. T. WILSON seems to be unaware that the pressure of public opinion forced President Roosevelt to with- draw his proposals for spelling " reform," and they have now been relegated to the " might-have-beens." The truth is that the English, both in this country and America, are temperamentally Tories, and averse to change on merely theoretical grounds. They will not be dictated to by philologists, even if backed by the whole strength of the British Academy and the sella curulis. No one denies that there is some need of reform, but it will have to be worked out gradually by a natural process of evolution. Our great-grandfathers wrote physick, musick, chuse, and so on ; and I da,re say our great- grandchildren will write meter, specter, theater, which after all have Elizabethan sanction, as well as honor, favor, and others of that kind. But I should be sorry to lose " our King and Governour."
It has often been urged that our variegated system of spelling renders the task both of teacher and pupil more difficult, and prolongs the rudimentary period of learning. But why teach English spelling at all ? Boys learn French and German without the aid
of a spelling-book. Spelling is mainly a
matter of memory, and an intelligent child
learns to spell words from the books he reads.
Some people, like Robert Louis Stevenson,
can never learn to spell properly, and are
always shaky about the words containing
ie and ei, to say nothing of greater posers.
But what matter ? Such words can gene-
rally be slurred over in ordinary correspond-
ence ; while if the writer is a contributor to
the press, which will probably be the case
in nine instances out of ten, the printer's
reader can always set matters right. I per-
sonally think we may safely leave the
spelling question to take care of itself.
W. F. PBIDEATJX.
HATCHING CHICKENS WITH ABTIFICIAL HEAT (10 S. vii. 149). It was probably the alleged conduct of the ostrich which sug- gested to ancient Egyptians the practice of encouraging domestic hens to relegate their maternal duties to the biped featherless. How the eggs were dealt with the picture galleries of the land of Ham do testify ; and, in Mr. Edward William Lane's time modern Egyptians had not forgotten the lesson, which may since have been improved on by the proprietors of a lively window in Regent Street :
" The Egyptians have long been famous for the art of hatching fowls' eggs by artificial heat. This practice, though obscurely described by ancient authors, appears to have been common in Egypt in very remote times. The building in which the process is performed is called, in Lower Egypt, ma'amal el-fira'kh, and in Upper Egypt, ma'amal d-furroo'y : in the former division of the country there are more than a hundred such establishments j\ and in the latter more than half that number. The proprietors pay a tax to government. The ma'amal is constructed of burnt or sun-dried bricks ; and consists of two parallel rows of small chambers and ovens, divided By a narrow, vaulted passage. Each chamber is about nine or ten feet long, eight feet- wide, and five or six feet high ; and has above it a vaulted oven of the same size, or rather less in height. The former communicates with the passage by an aperture large enough for a man to enter, and with its oven by a similar aperture : the ovens, also, of the same row, communicate with each other; and each has an aperture in its vault (for the escape of smoke) which is opened only occasionally: the passage, too has several such apertures in its vaulted roof. The eggs are placed on mats or straw, and one tier above another, usually to the number of three tiers, in the small chambers ; and burning geF/eh (a fuel composed of the dung of animals, mixed with chopped straw, and made into the form of round fat cakes) is placed on the floor of the ovens above. The entrance of the ma'amal is well
closed In general only half the number of
chambers are iised for the first ten days ; and fires are lighted only in the ovens above these. On the eleventh day, these fires are put out, and others are lighted in the other ovens and fresh eggs placed
