urpentine, which distils copiously from the wound. This juice is mixed
with the new wine in large quantities; the Greeks supposing that it would
be impossible to keep it any length of time without this mixture. The wine
has in consequence a very peculiar taste, but is by no means unpleasant
after a little use. This, as we learn from Plutarch, was an ancient custom
(_Sympos. Quaest._ iii. and iv. p. 528. edn. Wytten); the Athenians,
therefore, might naturally have placed the Fir-cone in the hands of
Bacchus. ("Lord Aberdeen's Journals," Appendix to Walpole's _Memoirs of
Turkey, &c._, vol. i. p. 605.)

F. B. RELTON.

_Dr. Robert Thomlinson_ (Vol. i., p. 350.).--The gentleman who is very
anxious for the communication of any matter illustrative of the life of the
doctor, his family, &c., will find considerable useful and interesting
information relating to him, his widow, and brother, by referring to the
under-mentioned _Reports from the Commissioners for inquiring concerning
Charities_:

5th Report, pages 67. 69.; 23rd Report, pages 56. 450.; 31st Report, pages
754. 757.

There is a slight allusion to the doctor in the _Returns of Corporate
Offices and Charitable Funds, &c._, p. 375.

H. EDWARDS.

_Touching for the Evil_ (Vol. iii., p. 93.).--St. Thomas Aquinas refers the
practice of touching for the evil by French kings to _Clovis_. See a work
published in 1633, by Simon Favoul, entitled, _Du Pouvoir que les Rois de
France ont de guerir les Ecrouelles_; also a work by Du Laurens, entitled,
_De Mirabili Strumas sanandi vi, regibus Galliarum Christianis divinitus
concessa, libri duo_, Paris, 1609, in 8vo.

Edward the Confessor is said to have been the first English king who
touched for the evil. Consequently the English can hardly be said to have
owed their supposed power to their pretensions to the crown of France.

E. J. R.

[We are indebted to MR. J. B. DITCHFIELD and MR. JOSEPH SULLEY for very
elaborate notices of the custom of the French kings touching for the
evil; but the principal facts contained in those communications have
already been laid before our readers by MR. COOPER (Vide No. 69. p.
148. et seq.)]

_Drax Free School_ (Vol. ii., p. 199.).--It appears by the will of Charles
Read, dated July 30, 1669, that that gentleman had at his own charge
erected a school-house at Drax, which he designed for a free school, and
for the habitation of a schoolmaster, to instruct the children of