As Mr. Dodgson knew several members of the Punch staff, he used to send up any little incidents or remarks that particularly amused him to that paper.  He even went so far as to suggest subjects for cartoons, though I do not know if his ideas were ever carried out.  One of the anecdotes he sent to Punch was that of a little boy, aged four, who after having listened with much attention to the story of Lot’s wife, asked ingenuously, “Where does salt come from that’s not made of ladies?” This appeared on January 3, 1874.

The following is one of several such little anecdotes jotted down by Lewis Carroll for future use:  Dr. Paget was conducting a school examination, and in the course of his questions he happened to ask a small child the meaning of “Average.”  He was utterly bewildered by the reply, “The thing that hens lay on,” until the child explained that he had read in a book that hens lay on an average so many eggs a year.

Among the notable people whom he photographed was John Ruskin, and, as several friends begged him for copies, he wrote to ask Mr. Ruskin’s leave.  The reply was, “Buy Number 5 of Fors Clavigera for 1871, which will give you your answer.”  This was not what Mr. Dodgson wanted, so he wrote back, “Can’t afford ten-pence!” Finally Mr. Ruskin gave his consent.

[Illustration:  John Ruskin. From a photograph by Lewis Carroll.]

About this time came the anonymous publication of “Notes by an Oxford Chiel,” a collection of papers written on various occasions, and all of them dealing with Oxford controversies.  Taking them in order, we have first “The New Method of Evaluation as applied to [pi],” first published by Messrs. Parker in 1865, which had for its subject the controversy about the Regius Professorship of Greek.  One extract will be sufficient to show the way in which the affair was treated:  “Let U = the University, G = Greek, and P = Professor.  Then G P = Greek Professor; let this be reduced to its lowest terms and call the result J [i.e., Jowett].”

The second paper is called “The Dynamics of a Parti-cle,” and is quite the best of the series; it is a geometrical treatment of the contest between Mr. Gathorne Hardy and Mr. Gladstone for the representation of the University.  Here are some of the “Definitions” with which the subject was introduced:—­

    Plain Superficiality is the character of a speech, in
    which any two points being taken, the speaker is found to
    lie wholly with regard to those two points.

    Plain Anger is the inclination of two voters to one
    another, who meet together, but whose views are not in the
    same direction.

    When two parties, coming together, feel a Right Anger, each
    is said to be complimentary to the other,
    though, strictly speaking, this is very seldom the case.

    A surd is a radical whose meaning cannot be exactly
    ascertained.