warehouse in which
they are stored upon their arrival in this country, the operation of {360}
sifting and separating the good from the bad is termed _garbling_: the word
being here employed in the very same sense as in the examples quoted by
E. S. T. T., illustrative of its original meaning, and which sense he
erroneously stated it no longer possessed.

R. V. T.

Mincing Lane.

I cannot agree with your correspondent E. S. T. T., that a corruption of
meaning has taken place in this word; and that whereas it originally meant
a selection of the good and a discarding of the bad parts of anything, its
present meaning, is exactly the reverse of this. Its original signification
is correctly stated: the garbling of spices, drugs, &c., meant the
selection of the good and the rejection of the bad. But the garbling of a
passage cited as a testimony is a precisely analogous process. The person
who garbles the passage omits those parts which can be used against his
view, and adduces only those parts which support his conclusion. He selects
the parts which are good, and rejects those which are bad, _for his
purpose_. When a passage is said to be garbled, it is always implied that
the person who quotes it has suppressed a portion which tells against
himself; but that portion is, so far as he is concerned, the _bad_, not the
_good_ portion. The secondary and metaphorical is therefore precisely
analogous to the primary and literal sense of the word, and not the reverse
of it.

L.

_Electric Telegraph_ (Vol. ix., p. 270.).--As every new attempt to improve
this invaluable invention, and to extend its use, is of world-wide
importance, the following extract from _La Presse_, a French newspaper of
March 23rd, will excite inquiry:

"On ecrit de Berne, le 17 Mars, MM. Brunner et Hipp, directeurs des
telegraphes electriques de la Suisse, viennent d'inventer un appareil
portatif a l'aide duquel, en l'appliquant a un point quelconque des
fils telegraphiques, on peut transmettre une depeche. L'essai de cet
appareil a ete fait a deux lieues de Berne, dans un lieu ou il n'existe
aucune section de telegraphie."

The writer goes on to say that the experiment had been tested with success
on the lines to Zurich, Basle, Geneva, &c.

J. MACRAY.

Oxford.

_Butler's "Lives of the Saints"_ (Vol. viii., p.387.).--The inquiry
respecting the various editions of this valuable work not having yet
received any answer, the fol