_Proof of a Sword_ (vol. iv., p. 39.).--ENSIS asks, "What is the usual test of a good blade?" The proof by striking on the surface of smooth water, is not uncommon in India; though, in my opinion, it is a very inefficient one, and there is no doubt that "the Toledo blades in the Crystal Palace" would stand it as well as any others of moderate goodness. "The Toledo blades that _roll_ up in a circle" can be as easily made in England as in Spain, but they are useless toys: there is an English one in the Exhibition, Class viii., Case 200., which fits into the circular Toledo scabbard placed above it; but they are only curious to the uninitiated. What, then, is an efficient proof? I reply, first strike the flat side of the blade on an iron table (by means of a machine) with a force of 300 to 400 lbs., and then on the edge and back over a round piece of hard wood with a force of 400 to 500 lbs.: after which thrust the point as hard as possible against a thick iron plate and through a cuirass, without turning or breaking it, and bend so as to reduce the length in the proportion of about one inch and a half to a foot. When thus proved, a sword may be relied on, and the operation may be seen every day at 27. Pall Mall. HENRY WILKINSON. _Dr. Young's "Narcissa"_ (Vol. iv., p. 22.).--In reply to W. F. S. of Surbiton it appears, from the most authentic biographical accounts of Dr. Young, that he had not any daughters, and only one son; and that the Narcissa of the _Night Thoughts_ was a daughter of his wife (Lady Elizabeth Lee), by her former husband, Colonel Lee. The writer in the _Evangelical Magazine_ must therefore have written in ignorance of these facts when he termed Narcissa Dr. Young's daughter: or he may have spoken, in a loose way, of the daughter-in-law as the daughter. J. M. _Circulation of the Blood_ (Vol. ii., p. 475.).--Having recently had occasion to look into the works of Bede, I have found, in lib. iv., _De Elementis Philosophiæ_, the passage which was the subject of my Query. Though not strictly in accordance with the established fact of the circulation of the blood, it will yet be allowed to be a near approximation to it. It is as follows:-- "Sanguine in epate generato, per venas ad omnia transit membra, calore quorum digestus, in eorum similitudinem transit: superfluitas, vero, partim per sudorem exit, alia vero pars ad epar revertitur, ibi decocta cum urina exit descendens, sedimenque vocatur; sed si in fundo sit urinæ dicitur hypostasis; si in medio, eneortim: si in summo nephile."--_Bedæ Opera_, vol. ii. p. 339., ed. Basiliæ, MDLXIII. J. MN.