"In some battle between the Russians and the Tartars, who are a wild sort of people in the north of Asia, a private soldier called out, 'Captain, halloo there! I've caught a Tartar!' 'Fetch him along then,' said the Captain. 'Ay, but he won't let me,' said the man. And the fact was the Tartar had caught him. So when a man thinks to take another in, and gets himself bit, they say he's caught a Tartar." Grose says that this saying originated with an Irish soldier who was in the "Imperial," that is, I suppose he means the Austrian service. This is hardly probable; the Irish are made to father many sayings which do not rightly belong to them, and this I think may be safely written as one among the number. EIRIONNACH has now two references before him, Grose's _Glossary_ and Arvine's _Cyclopædia_, in which his Query is partly explained, if he can but find the dates of their publication. In this search I regret I cannot assist him, as neither of these works are to be found in the libraries of this island; at least thus far I have not been able to meet with them. W. W. Malta. _The Termination "-itis"_ (Vol. vii., p. 13.).--ADSUM asks: "What is the derivation of the term _-itis_, used principally in medical words, and these signifying, inflammation?" If "N. & Q." were a medical journal, the question might be answered at length, to the great advantage of the profession; for, of late years, this termination has been tacked on by medical writers, especially foreigners, to words of all kinds, in utter defiance of the rules of language: as if a Greek affix were quite a natural ending to a Latin or French noun. _-itis_ can with propriety be appended only to those Greek nouns whose adjectives end in [Greek: -itês]: _e.g._ [Greek: pleura, pleuritês]; [Greek: keras, keratitês], &c. [Greek: Pleuritis] is used by Hippocrates. [Greek: Pleura] means the membrane lining the side of the chest: [Greek: pleuritis] ([Greek: nodos] understood) is morbus lateralis, the side-disease, or pleurisy. In the same manner _keratitis_ is a very legitimate synonym for disease of the horny coat (cornea) of the eye. But medical writers, disregarding the rules of language, have, for some years past, revelled in the use of their favourite _-itis_ to a most ludicrous extent. Thus, from _cornea_, they make "corneitis," and describe an inflammation of the crystalline lens as _lentitis_. Nay, some French and German writers on diseases of the eyes have coined the monstrous word "Descemetitis," on the ground that one Monsieur Descemet discovered a structure in the eye, which, out of compliment to him, was called "the membrane of Descemet." JAYDEE. * * * * * Miscellaneous. BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE. DEFENCE OF USURY, by BENTHAM. (A Tract.) TREATISE ON LAW, by MACKINLOCH. TWO DISCOURSES OF PURGATORY AND PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD, by WM. WAKE. 1687.