454
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. JUNE 4, 1904.
Physicians' Prescriptions.' Therein will be
found exhaustive particulars of the signs
referred to.
Many years ago I wrote a little work on the subject (long out of print), from which I make the following extract :
"It would take too long to enter into a descrip- tion of the old cabalistic symbols used by the fathers of chemistry, but I may mention, as a comparison with the strictly scientific aspect of present-day pharmacy and nomenclature, that these strange old signs, so far as can be shown, were arbitrarily chosen, and for the greater part without regard to any prior meaning.
"The seven common metals were supposed to be connected in some mysterious way with the seven .greater heavenly bodies, and the same symbol was applied to each heavenly body as to its appropriate metal. Rodwell, in the 'Birth of Chemistry,' says :
'"How the symbols conferred upon the planets, and afterwards the metals, arose, it is difficult to .say. They are, undoubtedly, of Chaldean origin ; but to what extent they have since been modified, no one can tell.'
" Fire was represented from a very early period by a triangle. Its antagonistic, water, haa for its symbol the same figure inverted. Air was denoted by a modification of the symbol for fire, while the fourth element of the ancient philosophers had for its symbol that of air inverted. These symbols seem to be closely associated with the doctrine of Aristotle, who taught that the four elements had each two qualities, one of which was common to some other element. He said : Fire is hot and dry, Air is hot and moist, Water is cold and moist, Earth is cold and dry.
" The principal signs in use by the alchymists were those at present used in astronomy."
Bradford.
CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.
By referring to Chambers's 'Twentieth-
Century Dictionary,' 1903, p. 1171, MR.
INGLEBY may find some useful information
on the origin of symbols used in medicine
and surgery. WILLIAM JAGGAED.
LMR. LAUNCELOT ARCHER also mentions the survival of the sign for Jupiter.]
" SCOLE INN," NORFOLK (10 th S. i. 248, 313, 394). I thought I had put the case clearly ; but it has been strangely perverted. What I meant to say was really this : that some one once imagined that the " Scole Inn " was so called because it was equidistant from four known places ! I implied that he was quite wrong, but that he obtained that notion from connecting the name with the old East- Anglian word scole, which happened to mean a pair of scales ; and a pair of scales, having equal arms, suggested to him this notion of equal distances. I submit that this is the only possible explanation of his theory. Will
any one point out an alternative one? I
think not.
But, as I said, we can only take this to be "a mediaeval joke"; surely we are not expected to swallow it.
I see no difficulty at all in the derivation. The word scole is obviously the Old Norse skdli, " a hut, a shed," a variant of which is " shieling." The O.N. a gives Northern E. a, as in Sea-scale and Portin-scale, and the rest; but Southern long o, as in scole. We have a precise parallel in hale and ivhole. The sense was simply shelter. Then it became a man's name, from the man who lived in it, just as Wood and Hill are men's names now. See ' Scale ' in the ' English Dialect Dictionary.' WALTER W. SKEAT.
Blomefield's ' History of Norfolk,' vol. i. (published in 1739), gives the following at p. 86 :
" Osmundeaton or Scole joins to the East part of Diss, and is bounded by the Waveny on the South : I can't find who this Osmund was that gave the name to the Town, but imagine him to be a Saxon and owner of it ; Scoles was a Hamlet to Osmundeston in the time of Edward III.... it stands by the name of Osmondston, alias Schole, which last name prevailed about the time of King Henry VIII. when this Hamlet was increased, so as to become the chief part of the Town, and might first receive its name from the Sholes or Shallows of the River on which it's situated.
"Here are two very good Inns, the White Hart is much noted in these parts, being called by way of distinction Scole Inn ; the House is a large brick building, adorned with imagery and carved work in many places, as big as the life. It was built in 1655, by John Peck, Esq; whose Arms impaling his wife's are over the porch door : The Sign is very large, beautified all over with a great number of Images of large stature, carved in wood, and was the work of one Fairchild, the Arms about it are those of the chief Towns and Gentlemen in the
County viz Here was lately a very large round
Bed, big enough to hold 15 or 20 Couple in imitation (1 suppose) or the remarkable great Bed at Ware. The House was in all things accommodated at first for large business, but the Road not supporting it, it is in much decay at present, tho' there is a good Bowling-Green and a pretty large garden with land sufficient for passengers' horses. The business of these two Inns is much supported by the annual Cock Matches that are fought there."
The inn still stands, I presume ; at all events, there still appears in the 'P.O. Direc- tory ' "The White Hart P.H." I knew it well as long as sixty years ago, celebrated then as a coaching and posting house, and known as "Scole Inn." J. H. J.
Ipswich.
THE " SHIP " HOTEL AT GREENWICH (9 th S. xii. 306, 375, 415, 431 ; 10 th S. i. Ill, 375). In answer to MR. PICKFORD, I can say that the sketch in ' Pendennis ' does not refer to
