506
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. n. DEC. 24,
uphold George Eliot's observation. The sub-
ject-matter is the results of a series of ex-
periments having to do with the odour of
human beings, made by Dr. A. Bethe, and
detailed by nim in a late number of the
Archiv der gesamten Physiologic, where the
experimenter not only maintains the theory
that every individual has his or her peculiar
scent, recognizable by delicate nasal sensi-
bility, but is inclined to go
"beyond the scientific into the moral province. He
believes that there is a characteristic 'family smell '
of which each member of a family more or less par-
takes, and which they do not quite lose even when
separated from one another by continents or oceans."
So far as indicated by the newpaper ex- tract, Dr. Bethe's theory is advanced as new, and while the question of fact may not lie within the province of discussion in ' N. & Q.' the curious coincidence noted is worthy of comment therein. M. C. L.
New York City.
SHAKSPEARIAN QUARTOS. In Mr. Sidney Lee's 'Life of Shakespeare' occurs the fol- lowing passage :
"The largest collections of the original quartos, each of which survives in only four, five, or six copies, are in the libraries of the Duke of Devonshire, the British Museum, and Trinity College, Cambridge, and in the Bodleian Library.
This statement is correct as regards some of the quartos, but of most of the quarto editions there are extant several copies, of which the following can be located :
' Love's Labour 'a Lost,' 1598, 10 copies.
' King Lear,' 1608, 16 copies ; another edition, 1608, 7 copies.
' Merchant of Venice,' 1600 (Roberts), 12 copies ; 1600 (Heyes), 11 copies.
' Much Ado about Nothing,' 1600, 10 copies.
' Midsummer Night's Dream,' 1600, 14 copies ; another edition, 1600, 8 copies.
4 Othello,' 1622, 8 copies ; 1630, 7 copies.
' Titus Andronicus, 1611, 8 copies.
' Merry Wives of Windsor,' 1619, 12 copies.
'Henry V.,' 1608, 14 copies.
' Whole Contention,' 1619, 12 copies.
' Hamlet,' 1611, 8 copies.
' Sonnets,' 1609, 10 copies.
And seven copies each of ' Romeo and Juliet,' ' Pericles,' ' Henry IV.,' ' Troilus and Cressida,' and 'Henry IV., 'Part II.
Of the 1640 edition of the ' Poems,' which Mr. Lee considers a rare book, there are at least twenty copies. No doubt other copies of the quartos exist of which there is no mention in bibliographical lists of early Shakspearian plays. MAURICE JONAS.
" PURR "= KICK. When a horse "kicks" he kicks ; but when a man, having knocked his wife or his enemy down, kicks her or him, he "purrs." Men in the Midlands
have settled quarrels by a "purring bout,'
and have put on the sharpest-pointed clogs
for the occasion. The purring fights were of
the most brutal nature, though from the
nature of the weapons never of long duration.
" A purring " is a foot fight, and such have
taken place in Derbyshire and Lancashire,
and maybe are not yet unknown. Is " purr "
= kick known in this connexion elsewhere ]
It is not in Halliwell.
THOMAS KATCLIFFE.
Worksop.
SAILOR'S EPITAPH. The following epitaph, from a tombstone in the Caroline Islands, is so rare a variety of the composition of the " unlettered muse " that I think it deserves recording :
Sacred to Wilm Collis Boat Steerer of the SHIP SaiNt george of New BED ford who By the Will of
Almitey god was siviriliery injured by a
BULL WHALE off this Hand on 18 March 1860
also to
Pedro Sabbanas of Guam 4th MaTE drouwned on
the SAME Date his Back broken by WHALE
above MeNTioned.
HENRY ATTWELL. Barnes.
BLACK BLOTTING PAPER. The first three series of 'N. & Q.' contain four articles respecting the early use of blotting paper, but I cannot trace any mention of the use of black blotting paper or the inventor. I there- fore send the following paragraph, taken from ' Secrets of the Courts of Europe,' by Allen Upward :
" By the way, were you aware that the black blotting paper, so universally in use among diplo- matists, was the invention of your countryman Lord Beaconsfield ? It is now no longer possible to decipher important secrets from a Minister's blot- ting pad."
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.
71, Brecknock Road.
BEETLE AND WEDGE. In a superficial article on ' Public-house Signs ' in the Daily JVetvs, 19 November, occurs the remark : "Odd combinations are frequent enough. Why bring together the beetle and wedge ? "
The combination appears no more odd to me than " pestle and mortar " or " pens and ink." Beetle, derived from the Saxon bitl, is a mallet, and is frequently employed in con- junction with a wedge. But the writer goes
