Professor Newman, as T. H. T. has observed, confined himself to a tabular view of Celtic and Latin words; but the grammatical structure and formal development of the two languages have not been overlooked in the philological literature of England. These interesting inquiries have been pursued by Dr. Prichard, in his elaborate treatise on the _Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations_, and the Rev. W. D. Conybeare, (in his _Theological Lectures delivered in Bristol College in 1831-33_) has shown that it is by thus analysing the grammatical structure, which forms the very skeleton of languages, rather than by confining our attention to mere vocabularies, that we may best detect their true affinities, and has illustrated this doctrine by a few Welsh examples. In the _West of England Archaeological Journal_ is exhibited (I believe by the same author) the identity of verbal forms in the Welsh and Latin languages. Nevertheless, Archdeacon Williams maintains that two languages may have a common vocabulary, but different grammars[3]: "The Latin language, whether from Pelasgic or Achaean influence, adopted at an early period the Hellenic grammar; and, under the skilful hands of the bilingual Ennius, became that polished interpreter of thought, which yields in regularity and majesty to the Greek alone. The Cumri either retained, which is more probable, a still more ancient, or invented a grammar, now peculiar to themselves. This, although it be simple and scientific in the highest degree, is so completely at variance with all the other grammars of the civilised world, that scholars who have to acquire it late in life feel the strongest repugnance to its forms and principles, and are tempted to regard a language more fixed and unchangeable in its principles than any other existing, as more slippery and grasp-escaping than the Proteus of the Grecian mythology." Since I wrote these extracts, I have been much gratified by the perusal of Archdeacon Williams's _Gomer_, which I recommend to all interested in this inquiry. BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM. [Footnote 2: In _Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, vol. xiii.] [Footnote 3: In his _Gomer_ he shows that the Latin and Cymraeg display great similarity in the tenses of the substantive verb.] * * * * * PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. _Box Sawdust for Collodion._--The following will be of some use to your photographic readers: I find that, by treating box sawdust with nitric and sulphuric acid (in the same manner as cotton), and then dissolving it in ether, it gives a far more sensitive collodion than either cotton or paper, and the pictures produced by it are of unequalled brilliancy. Can you inform me whether portraits can be taken _for sale_, by the collodion process, without infringing upon the patents? CHAS. WHITWORTH. Henrietta St., Birmingham.