welfth-day), and on this
day only. The villagers in whose gardens it grows, and indeed many others,
verily believe that this fact pronounces the truth of this being the day of
Christ's birth.

S. S. B.

_Milk-maids in 1753._--To Folk-lore may be added the following short
extract from Read's _Weekly Journal_, May 5, 1733:

"On May-Day the Milk-Maids who serve the Court, danced Minuets and
Rigadoons before the Royal Family, at St. James's House, with great
applause."

Y. S.

_Diseases cured by Sheep_ (Vol. iii., p. 320.).--The attempted cure of
consumption, or some {368} complaints, by walking among a flock of sheep,
is not new. The present Archbishop of Dublin was recommended it, or
practised it at least, when young. For pulmonary complaints the principle
was perhaps the same as that of following a plough, sleeping in a room over
a cowhouse, breathing the diluted smoke of a limekiln, that is, the
inhaling of carbonic acid, all practised about the end of the last century,
when the knowledge of the gases was the favourite branch of chemistry.

A friend of mine formerly met Dr. Beddoes riding up Park Street in Bristol
almost concealed by a vast bladder tied to his horse's mouth. He said he
was trying an experiment with oxygen on a broken-winded horse. Afterwards,
finding that oxygen did not answer, he very wisely tried the gas most
opposite to it in nature.

C. B.

_Sacramental Wine_ (Vol. iii., p. 320.).--This idea is a relic of Roman
Catholic times. In Ireland a weakly child is frequently brought to the
altar rails, and the priest officiating at mass requested to allow it to
drink from the chalice of what is termed _the ablution_, that is, the wine
and water with which the chalice is _rinsed_ after the priest has taken the
communion, and which ablution ordinarily is taken by the priest. _Here_ the
efficacy is ascribed to the cup having just before contained the blood of
Our Lord. I have heard it seriously recommended in a case of hooping-cough.
Your correspondent MR. BUCKMAN does not give sufficient credit for common
sense to the believers in some portion of folk lore. Red wine is considered
tonic, and justly, as it contains a greater proportion of _turmic_ than
white. The yellow bark of the barberry contains an essential tonic
ingredient, as the Jesuit's bark does _quinine_, or that of the willow
_salicine_. Nettle juice is well known as a purifier of the blood; and the
navelwort, like Euphrosia, wh