singular difference arisen? I am inclined to suggest that originally
the oath was taken by merely laying the hand on the top of the book,
without kissing it. Lord Coke (3 _Inst._ 165.) says, "It is called a
corporal oath, because he toucheth with his hand some part of the Holy
Scripture." And Jacob (_L. D._, "Oath"), says it is so called "because the
witness, when he swears, _lays his right hand upon_, and toucheth the Holy
Evangelists." And Lord Hale (2 _H. P. C._ 279.) says, "The regular oath, as
is allowed by the laws of England, is 'Tactis sacrosanctis Dei
Evangeliis'," and in case of a Jew, "Tacto libro legis Mosaicae:" and, if I
rightly remember, the oath as administered in the Latin form at Oxford
concludes: "Ita te Deus adjuvet, tactis sacrosanctis Christi Evangeliis."
In none of these instances does kissing the book appear to be essential.
Whereas the present form used in the Courts is, "So help you God, kiss the
book;" but still the witness is always required to touch the book with his
hand, and he is never permitted to hold the book with his hand in a glove.
When then did the practice of kissing the book originate? And how happens
it that the Welsh and English take the book in the hand in the different
manners I have described?

C. S. G.

* * * * *

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

Powerful as this extraordinary agent has become, and incalculably useful as
its operation is now found to be, it would appear that the principle of the
electric telegraph and its _modus operandi_, almost identically as at
present, were known and described upwards of a century ago. On the occasion
of a late visit to Robert Baird, Esq., of Auchmeddan, at his residence,
Cadder House, near Glasgow, my attention was called by that gentleman to a
letter initialed C. M., dated Renfrew, Feb. 15, 1753, and published that
year in the _Scots Magazine_, vol. xv. p. 73., where the writer not only
suggests electricity as a medium for conveying messages and signals, but
details with singular minuteness the method of opening and maintaining
lingual communication between remote points, a method which, with only few
improvements, has now been so eminently successful. It is usual to
attribute this wonderful discovery to the united labours of Mr. W. F. Cooke
and Professor Wheatstone, but has any one acknowledged the contribution of
C. M., and can any of the learned correspondents of "N. & Q." inform me who
he was?

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