COUNTRY LIFE
Cats' Brains An authority on British place-names is a little perplexed by the intrusion, in several widely separated parts of the country, of the odd phrase, " cats' brains." Research indicates that this description has been applied to soils, sometimes iron soils, some- times even chalky, which have some sort of granulated appearance. Why the grey matter of the cat has been selected is entirely obscure, and in general much more light is desired on the dis- tribution as well as the origin of the term, as well as its trans- ference to the names of places where such soils are found. So much really useful and interesting information was supplied some while ago by readers of The Spectator on the local words " slype " and " slade," that I venture to ask for more light en this odd and obscure idiom.
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