The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-12-25
(CONTTNUED FROM FIRST PAGE.

CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE.
manufactured at or exported from Bur
sundy. The best is resinous substances
prepared for common frankincense and
brought from Hamburg; but by far the
larger quality is a mixture of resin and
palm oil.
Prussian blue does not come from Prus-
STA, but is the precipitate of the salt of
protoXide of iron with red prusSiate Of
potass.
Salt is no salt at all, and has long been
wholly excluded from the class of bodies
lenominated as salts.
Whalebone is no bone at all. nor does
it possess any properties of bone. 1t is
a substance attached to the upper jaw of
the whale. and serves to strain the water
which the creature takes up in large
mouthfuls.
Speaking Of whales reminds me Cf
sperm oil, which properly means 'seed
oil =" (Latin sperma), from the notion
that it was Spermaceti (the spawn or
melt Of a whale). The spermaceti whale
is the one that gives this seed oil,
which is taken chiefly. but not wholly,
from the head.
Longitude and latitude, the great di-
mension and the little or broad dimen-
sion of the earth According to the an
cient notion the world was bounded on
the west by the Atlantic, but extended
an indefinite length eastward. 1t was
similarly terminated on the south by the
troplc of Cancer, whence it extended
northward, but this extent being much
less than that east and west. was called
the breath or latitude.
Kensington Palace is not in Kensing-
ton at all. but in the parish of st. Mar
garet, Westminster.
Jerusalem artichoke las no connection
with Jerusalem. but with the suntlower.
gcrasolf, which it resembles.
ERRORS AS TO PERSONS.
Louis de Bourbon, Bishop Of Liege, is
made by Sir Walter Scott in Quentin
Durwood.' an "old man." whereas he
was only eighteen years of age, and a
scholar at Louvain. He made his entry
into his see in a scarlet jerkia and cap
set jauntily on one side.
Philip VI. of France. was called fe
be. .fo1tHHC, but never was name more
inappropriate. He was defeated at Sluys
and again on the field of Greasy; he lost
Calais: and fourth of all his subjects
We're carried of by the black DEATH
Louis XIV. was styled the Well Be-
loved, which was certainly most singu-
lar and inappropriate title for this most
letestable and verify detested of all
kings.
Absalom means Fathers Peace" a
fatal name for David's rebellious son.
Did you ever think, when reading that
beautiful poem, ''On the Shores of Ten
nessees' of the age of Ralph Eer"air ,
between "when they fought by Marion
side " and the day ''when the flag went
up the river" and you will find it was
about time for him to give Pompey his
liberty.
The much discussed question, Who
wrote the Declaration of Independence
has been so differently decided, and each
claim so well supported. that the author
ship Of the grand old document is yet
considered Us misnomer by many. Let
us give the homer to the signers and be
content that the deed was done.
Among the many mistakes prevalent
in regard to the habits of animals and
insects is the notion that ants in general
gather food in harvest for Winter S
store. This is quite an error: in the first
place, they do not live on grain, but
chiefly on animal food: and in the next
place. they are torpid in Winter and do
not require food. Col. Sykes. however,
says there is in Poonah, grain-feeding
species which stores up millet seed, but
certainly our ants have no claim to Jane
Taylor's stanZa:
Who taught the little ant the way
Its narrow hole to bore,
And labor all the Summer day
To gather Winter store?