gypt; and the honour of the invention has been
unanimously conferred on Hermes Trismegistus. He is by some supposed to
be the same person with Chanaan, the son of Ham, whose son Mizraim
first occupied and peopled Egypt. Plutarch informs us that Egypt was
sometimes called _Chemia_: this name is supposed to be derived from
Chanaan. Hence it was inferred that Chanaan was the inventor of
_chemistry_, to which he affixed his own name. Whether the Hermes of
the Greeks was Chanaan, or his son Mizraim, it is impossible to decide;
but to Hermes is assigned the invention of _chemistry_, or _the art of
making gold_, by almost the unanimous consent of the adepts." Dr.
Webster says, "The orthography of this word has undergone changes
through a mere ignorance of its origin, than which nothing can be more
obvious. It is the Arabic _kimia_, the occult art or science, from
_kamai_, to conceal. This was originally the art or science now called
alchemy; the art of converting baser metals into gold." Webster says
the correct orthography is _chimistry_.]

_Burning for Witchcraft._--When and where was the last person burned to
death for witchcraft in England?

W. R.

[We believe the last case of burning for witchcraft was at Bury St.
Edmunds in 1664, tried by Sir Matthew Hale, although some accounts
state that the victims, Amy Duny and Rose Callender, were executed. In
the same year Alice Hudson was burnt at York for having received 10s.
at a time from his Satanic majesty. The last case of burning in
Scotland was in Sutherland, A.D. 1722: the judge was Captain David
Ross, of Little Dean. At Glarus, in Ireland, a servant girl was burnt
so late as 1786. The last authenticated instance of the swimming ordeal
occurred in 1785, and is quoted by Mr. Sternberg from a _Northampton
Mercury_ of that year:--"A poor woman named Sarah Bradshaw, of Mears
Ashby, who was accused of being a witch, in order to prove her
innocence, submitted to the ignominy of being dipped, when she
immediately sunk to the bottom of the pond, which was deemed to be an
incontestable proof that she was no witch!"]

_The Small City Companies._--Where does the fullest information appear
respecting their early condition, &c.? Herbert's work only occasionally
refers to them, and I am aware of many incidental notices of them in
Histories of London, &c.; but it does n