"He was a great Physician & Scholar, insomuch that he was a Candidate to succeed Downes as Greek Prof. He translated Gerhard's _Sum of Xtian Doctri._, 1640, of which see Dedication. On his Bro. departing for Germany, he translated _Drescelius on Eternity_, and on another occasion returned to Gerhard. This was probably on some difficulty which was started to his Degree of M.D. by Provost Collins. He is said at one time to have suffered so, as for a time to have lost his senses. His Books are prefaced by recommendatory Verses from K. C. men, viz. D. Williamson, 1627; R. Newman, H. Whiston, and Thomas Page, 1627; Wym Carew, 1622; Tho. Bonham, 1621; Edm. Sheafe, 1613; R. Williams, 1623; T. Yonge, 1624. "He published _Dionysius de Situ Orbis_, with a Dedication to Sir H. Wotton, and Hippocrates' _Aphorisms_ in Gr. Verse, 1633. Qu'e, if the Lat. Verses not written by Fryer, an eminent Physician at Camb. Qu'e, the _Poetæ Minores_." See, too, a short account in Harwood's _Alumni Etonensis_, p. 218. J. H. L. MEANING AND ORIGIN OF "ERA." (Vol. iv., pp. 383. 454.; Vol. v., p. 106.) Your correspondents do not seem to be aware that this _questio vexata_ has given rise to a volume in folio! In 1744 Don Gregorio Mayans y Siscar published, at the expense of the Academy of Valencia, a volume containing nearly 400 pages under the following title: _Obras Chronologicas de Don Gaspar Ibañes, &c., Marquis de Mondejar, &c. &c._, which is principally occupied by a discourse entitled, "Origen de LA ERA ESPAÑOLA i su Diferencia con los años de Christo."[4] Prefixed to this is a very able and learned Preface, by the editor, of nearly 100 pages; and one would have thought that between these distinguished scholars the subject in dispute would be set at rest. [Footnote 4: A re-impression of the Valencia edition was made at Madrid in the year 1795.] Unfortunately, however, Spanish scholars and antiquaries have too much neglected the Gothic element in their language, and they have consequently missed the only source from whence, as it appears to me, the true origin of _Era_ could be developed. The Marquis de Mondejar indeed seems to have had a suspicion of the true source; for he has a chapter thus entitled "Si puede ser _Gothica_ la voz ERA i aver introducido los Godos su computo en España?" in which he thus expresses his incapacity to answer his own question: "I assi contentandonos con aver expressado nuestra imaginacion con el mismo recelo que la discurrimos, _prohibendonos la ignorancia de la lengua Gothica antigua_, el que podamos justificar si pudo aver procedido de ella la voz ERA propria del computo de que hablamos." As long since as 1664 that eminent northern philologist Thomas Marshall, in his notes on the Gothic Gospels, had thus expressed himself, confirming, if not anticipating, Spelman: