Is there any resemblance between them and Cretins? Are there any families or races of Cretins ever heard of? C. B. _The Serpent represented with a human Head_ (Vol. iv., p. 191.).--I send you two instances of the serpent being represented with a human head; the first occurs in the Arundel MS. No. 23., in this College, containing the genealogical descent of King Edward IV., and apparently coeval with that sovereign. The other is a beautifully executed sketch of Adam and Eve in a MS., also in this College, of the time of Henry VII., at the commencement of _The Genealogy of the Saxon Kings from Adam_. They are both female heads, the latter, however, being the entire bust. THOMAS W. KING (York Herald). College of Arms. In the stained glass of the east window in the Lady Chapel, Wells Cathedral (temp. Edw. III.), the serpent, which is entwined round a tree, and holds an apple, has not only the head but the upper half of a human figure. On a scroll is written in uncial letters, "Si comederitis de ligno vitæ eritis sicut Dii scientis bonis et malis;" and in a straight line below the subject, "Arbor cum Serpente." T. WT. _Fire Unknown_ (Vol. iv., pp. 209. 283.).--At the time when Leibnitz wrote, curious references to accounts of savages were not infrequent. All your readers will remember Locke's reference to some account of savages who had neither idea of God nor of being superior to man. It may be that narratives of tribes who did not use fire, who lived on dried flesh or fish, for instance, may have given rise to an idea of their not knowing fire. I think I remember to have seen it stated that some of the savages of Australia did not know fire. On this, five-and-twenty years ago, I made a note from Mr. Barron Field's _Collection of Geographical Memoirs of New South Wales_. Two wrecked Englishmen passed some time among the natives, and found they had no knowledge that water could be heated; but the very story seems to show that they knew of fire. On boiling some in a tin pot, "The whole tribe gathered round them, and watched the pot till it began to boil, when they all took to their heels, shouting and screaming, nor could they be persuaded to return till they saw them pour the water out and clean the pot, when they slowly ventured back and carefully covered the place where the water was spilt with sand." These two Englishmen were treated with great attention by the natives, they were painted twice a day, and it was quite their own faults that they did not have their noses bored and their bodies scarified. M. _Plant in Texas_ (Vol. iv., p. 208.).--The following is an extract from a periodical of 1848 or 1849: "According to the _Medical Times_, Major Alvord has discovered on the American prairies a plant possessing the property of pointing north and south, and has given it the name of _Sylphium laciniatum_." G. P***.