not a venomous serpent,
but the most defenceless of reptiles.

Again, I do not think that MR. KEIGHTLEY'S quotation from Schiller's
_Wallenstein's Tod_ supports his view. I am not a German scholar, but I
find that the translator of _Wallenstein's Tod_ (I believe Lord Ellesmere)
has translated or paraphrased the lines quoted by MR. KEIGHTLEY as follows:

"But nature gave the very worm a sting,
When trampled on by man, to turn again."

The sense of the passage (spoken by Butler) requires that "wurm" should be
understood to mean a harmless despised reptile, not a venomous serpent.

It seems that Schiller had Shakspeare in his mind when he wrote the lines
in question; indeed, they are almost a copy of Shakspeare's line. I
consider them as parallel passages.

It may not be irrelevant to observe that _worm_ in some places still means
a serpent; but I believe it has usually a prefix, as "hag-worm" in
Westmoreland and the West Riding of Yorkshire; so also in the latter
"slow-worm" means a species of small snake or viper found on some of the
moors. (For "slow-worm," see "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., pp. 33. and 479.) I
have been told that "blind-worm" in Surrey means a viper. I conclude with a
Query, Does _Wurm_ in modern German ever mean a serpent?

F. W. J.

"To put a spoke in one's wheel," is not singular in its _double entendre_
(Vol. viii., pp. 262. 351. 464.). "There is no love lost between them" is
in a similar predicament. We now speak of no love being lost between A. and
B., when we would intimate that the warmth of their mutual affection may be
accurately represented by 32deg Fahrenheit. That this has not always been
the meaning of the phrase, the following verse from the old ballad of _The
Children in the Wood_ will testify:

"Sore sick he was, and like to die,
No help that he could have;
His wife by him as sick did lie,
And both possess'd one grave.
_No love between these two was lost_,
Each was to other kind;
In love they lived, in love they died,
And left two babes behind."

R. PRICE.

St. Ives.

* * * * *

SNEEZING.

(Vol. viii., p. 366.)

A collection of "facts, theories, and popular ideas" upon this subject
would fill a volume. I send, however, a few extracts, &c., which may
interest your correspondent MEDICUS:

"Et n'esternuay point regardant le soleil."

"And did not sneeze as he looked upon the sun."
Ronsard, tom. v. p. 158., quo