Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/480

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474


NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. x. DEC. 12,


" BAUD "^GEORGE (11 S. x. 386, 430). In North Notts and the counties ad- joining lads named George are commonly addressed and known as " Jud," " Jarge " being the designation of grown men for the most part. THOS. BATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

CONSUMPTION IN IRELAND : EICKETS (US. x. 370). ST. SWITHIN at this reference inquired whether there was any corroboration of the statement of the late Primate of Ireland, the Bight Bev. Dr. Alexander (born in 1824), that he (the Primate) remem- bered consumption being introduced from England into Ireland, where it was at first known as " the English cold."

Begarding this inquiry as important from the standpoint of medical statistics, I have taken a little trouble to provide ST. SWITHIN with a fitting reply. Applica- . tion to Irish medical friends and to the inquiry column of The British Medical Journal elicited no information.

Hirsch in his ' Geographical Distribution of Disease,' a work commenced in or about 1858, states that consumption is a disease " rare " in Ireland. This, I thought, tended to support the Primate's statement ; but, in looking into a Beport made to the Lord- Lieutenant in 1851 by Sir William Wilde, I found it there stated that there were at that time in the prisons and asylums of

Ireland no fewer than 4,182 cases of con-

sumption. Further, in a column of syno- nyms, Sir W. Wilde does not mention " English cold " as a synonym for con- sumption.

Finally, I did what I might have done earlier with advantage I wrote to the Irish Begistrar-General, Sir William Thomp- son, and that gentleman has courteously sent me the following valuable information :

" The Mortality Returns for Ireland, as a whole, appear for the first time in the Census Report of 1841. The Census Commissioners, reporting on the Tables of Deaths for the 10 years from 1831 to 1841, make the following observation regarding Consumption in Ireland : ' Consumption, by far the most fatal affection to which the inhabitants of this country are subject, is reported to have destroyed 135,590 of the population.' No less than 14,214 persons were returned on Census forms as having died from this cause during the years 1831-2."

If, therefore, Dr. Alexander's statement is accurate, the incidence of consumption in Ireland would appear to have been in accordance with the well-known law that -a disease attacks a new country for the first time with especial virulence.


With regard to ST. SWITHIN'S seconc query why rickets is known abroad as the " English disease " I would suggest that this is because the disease was first described by an English physician, Dr. Francis Glisson, who published the first known M'ork on the subject, 'De Bachitide,' in 1650. The disease is as common in Germany and ether parts of Europe as it is in England.

S. D. CLIPPINGDALE, M.D.

"O si sic OMNES " (11 S. x. 429). I doubt whether these words, which Miss VERRALL describes as a " proverbial phrase," are anything more than a misquotation of part of Juvenal's famous

Antoni gladios potuit contemnere si sic Omnia fecisset. ' Kat.,' x. 123.

B. B.

[This suggestion, which was made at 5 S. vi. 108, and for which we also thank MR. W. BOSSALL, seems to us rather unlikely, unless, indeed, for " misquotation " we read " playful adaptation " when there still remains the question, Who first perpetrated this ?]

THE HEIGHT OF ST. PAUL'S (11 S. x. 388, 434). In ' London Exhibited in 1851,' edited and published by John Weale, p. 185, the following figures are given : -

The lantern, ball, and cross rise altogether 365 ft. from the ground, 356 from the floor of the church, and 375 from that of the crypts.

A foot-note says :

"We cannot guess the origin of the 401ft. f copied into most accounts, unless it be taken " from the bottom of the foundations, or the level of the Thames."

In this book, among other illustrations, is ' Sections of the transept and dome of St. Peter's, Florence Cathedral, London ditto, and St. Genevieve, Paris, showing their comparative widths and heights,' drawn to the scales of English feet and Boman palms (p. 181). Also (p. 190) there is a ' Sectional View of the Dome of St. Paul's.'

Weale's book became one of " Bohn's Illustrated Library" soon after 1851, with the title ' Pictorial Handbook of London.'

According to Allibone's ' Dictionary,' Weale edited and published, or edited, a good many books on architecture and similar subjects. BOEERT PIERPOINT.

It would seem that scarcely any two writers agree as to the exact height of the Cathedral. I append the results of a few consultations taken haphazard from books in my possession :

" The height is 365 feet from the ground, 356 from the floor of the church, and 375 from the