_Watch-paper Inscription_ (Vol. viii., p. 316.).--Twenty-five years ago this inscription was set to music, and was popular in private circles. The melody was moderately good, and the "monitory pulse-like beating" of course was acted, perhaps over-acted, in the accompaniment. I am not sure it was printed, but the fingers of young ladies produced a great many copies. Your correspondent's version is quite accurate, and I think he must have heard it sung, as well as read it. _Segnius irritant_, &c. is not true of what is read as opposed to what is heard with music. M. _Dotinchem_ (Vol. viii., p. 151.).--Dotinchem appears to be the place which is called _Deutichem_ in the map of the Netherlands and Belgian, published by the Useful Knowledge Society in 1843, and _Deutekom_ in the map of the kingdom of the Netherlands, published by the same society in 1830. Moreri spells the name _Dotechem_, _Dotekom_, and _Dotekum_. It is situated on the Yssel, south-east of Doesburg. B. J. _Reversible Names and Words_ (Vol. viii., p. 244.).--I cannot call to mind any such _propria mascula_: but I think I can cast a doubt on your correspondent's crotchet. Surely our _civic_ authorities (not even excepting the _Mayor_) are veritable males, though sometimes deserving the _sobriquet_ of "old women." Surveyors, builders, carpenters, {376} and bricklayers are the only persons who use the _level_. On board ship, it is the males who professionally attend at the _poop_. Our foreign-looking friend _rotator_, at once suggestive of certain celebrated personages in the lower house, is by termination masculine; and such members, in times of political probation, never fail to show themselves _evitative_ rather than plucky. But some words are reversible in sense as well as in orthography. If a man _draw_ "on" me, I should be to blame if at least I did not _ward_ "off" the blow. Whom should we _repel_ sooner than the _leper_? Who will _live_ hereafter, if he be a doer of _evil_? We should always seek to _deliver_ him who is being _reviled_. Even Shakspeare was aware of the fact, that it is a _God_ who breeds magots in a dead _dog_ (vide _Hamlet_). "Cum multis aliis." The art of composing palindromes is one, at least, as instructive as, and closely allied to, that of _de_-ciphering. If any one calls the compositions in question "trash," I cannot better answer than in palindrome, _Trash? even interpret Nineveh's art!_ for the deciphering of the cuneiform character is both a respectable and a useful exercise of ingenuity. The English language, however, is not susceptible of any great amount of palindromic compositions. The Latin is, of all, the best adapted for that fancy. I append an inscription for a hospital, which is a paraphrase of a verse in the Psalms: "Acide me malo, sed non desola me, medica." I doubt whether such compositions should ever be characterised by the term _sotadic_. Sotadic verses were, I believe, restricted to indecent love-songs.