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Poetic Gems.
The Leaf in the Book.
An ancient lady is m/ aunt,
A little old book has Rhe,
A faded leaf In me old book lies,
Withered as leal can be.
The hands are withered that plucked it once
For her on a day In spring;
Wnat alls her now, the poor old soul,
That she weeps when she sees the thing ?
Many persona depreciate in others
the excellencies of character which
they do not possess themselves. This
shows a mean spirit of envy and jeal
ousy, and bttrays the littleness of
their minds. Such a spirit should not
be indulged for a moment.
To the Bead.
A PARAPHRASE.
Gone art thou? gone, and the ligfit of day
Still shining, Is my hair not touched with
f.ray?
But evening draweth nigh, I pass the door,
And see thee walking on the dlm-llt shore.
Gone art thou ? gone, and weary on the
brink
Of Lethe waltlug there; O. do not drink,
Brink not, lorget not, wait a little while,
I shall be with thee ; we again may smile.
You may have noticed that all
evening shadows point to the east
where the dawn will appear. So every
shadow made by the descending sun
ot earthiy prosperity points with sure
prophecy to the better hopes which
are kindled by the glowing promises
of God.
A Bientot.
Farewell, brlghtrdawns and perfume laden
airs,
Faint with toe breath of roses newly blown
Warm slumbious noons, when sleep our
haunting cares,
Long summer, uajs and nights, too swiftly
flown.
With sighs and sad regrets we saw you go;
Way did you leave us, who had loved you so?
•Neath sapphire skies, and starry hedgerows
sweet
Laced with gold threads of gossamer, we
went,
Wild summer blooms beneath our wandering
feet,
And Summer In our hearts; our love in
tent.
“I will return,” you said, “when roses blow,”
That time we said “good-bye,” a year ago.
But I alone Lave seen them bloom and die,
While you haveipassed beyond these shad
ows here
Into the light. I’ll follow bye-and-bye.
Meantime I wait, ana eoid the roses dear,
And summer sacred for the love I bear;
Until we meet again, some day, somewhere.
Impoliteness is derived from just two
sources—indifference to the divine,
and contempt for the human.
The Home Doctor.
Quinine Hypodermically.
Dr. Sawyer, of Alabama, says that
quinine used hypodermically—that is,
thrown under the skin wish a syringe
—results beneficially when largo doses
by the mouth have completely failed.
Anaesthetics.
The London Lancet, of August 27th,
1881, says: “We admit, and have al
ways admitted, that on the who.e
ether is the safest general anaesthetic
yet discovered. It is probably three
times safer than chloroform.” Still
deaths occasionally occur under its
administration, especially where there
is some disease of the lungs unsuspect
ed by the patient, and not discovered
by the operator. The Lancet adds:
“We are inclined to the opinion that
in all cases where there is disease of
the structure of the lungs, the auais-
thetics of the chloroform group are
the safest and best.’ 1 This doubtless
from the fact that ether acts directly
on the pulmonary nerves, while chlor
oform acts on the cardiac. In surgi
cal operations of the mouth, the dan
ger of asphyxia (suffocation) is much
Increased by blood finding its way into
the windpipe. In such cases the
quickest actiDg ansetthetic is to be pre
ferred—say methylene. Ether is one
of the slowest. There is no reason to
believe that chloroform has not proved
specially dangerous in cases of partu
rition and military surgery ; but that
the fatal cases are mainly in the minor
operations, such as the extraction of
teeth. Nitrous oxide is always safe.
But as its effects are brief its use has
been necessarily confined to minor
operations. Some later experiments,
however, seem to show that, if a cer
tain per cent, of oxygen Is mixed with
it, its effect# last long enough for the
more difficult and protracted opera
tions. If this becomes fully established
as a fact, it will reuder surgery both
painless and safe.
Cerebre-Spinal Meningitis.
The brain is covered with three
membranes. The one next to the
sbull is thick and tough, and is called
the dura mater. The one which im
mediately invests the brain, as the
skin does the body, is thin and tender,
and is called the pia mater. Betwei n
these is a cob-web like membrane called
the arachuoid, winch secretes a thin
lubricating fluid whereby all friction
from the movements of the brain is (
prevented. As the spinal cord is sim
ply an extension of the cerebral sub
stance, the same three membranes ac
company and ipvest it down through
the spinal canal. Each of them may
be the seat of disease. Cerebrospinal
meningitis has its proper seat in the
pia mater. As the name shows, the
membrane both of the brain and the
spine is affected—inflamed. The dis
ease is a fearful one, from its pain ; its
rapidity of action ; its great mortality
—thirty to eighty per cent.; and from
its liability, in cases of recovery, to
leave behind it more or less of perma
nent injury. The inflimed membrane
exudes a gelatinous fluid which presses
on the cerebral and spinal substance,
both of which increase in volume.
Abundance of pus is generated, espec
ially at the base of the brain and down
through the spinal cord. The inflam
mation may extend to the other mem
branes, and most of the organs of the
body ma> be more remotely affected.
The early symptoms are headache,
dizziness, numbness in the limbs, stiff
ness of the neck and limbs. But its
onset may be in full force with high
fever, intense headache, vomiting, de
lirium, spasms ot the muscles of the
neck, back and limbs, and intensely
painful sensibility of the skin. These
symptoms may continue fiom twelve
to twenty-four hours and. be followed
by the stage of depression, at the be
ginning of which the patient may die,
or, if he passes through it, is mos'.
likely to live. The disease is generally
epidemical. But the one fact which
we would strongly emphasize is that
it follows in the track of defective hy
gienic conditions. It seeks out filth.
The better classes erj >y a remarkable
immunity from its attaiks. “Fore
warned is forearmed.”—Youth's Com
panion.
What Is Glucose ?
Glucose is the sugar of the future.
Oppose it as you will, it is daily in-
creising in importance and iu the
number of its uses. In climates where
the sugar-cane will not grow and in
countries where the sugar-ceet cannot
be cultivated with profit, there is a
wild field for glucose. Wherever corn
grain, or potatoes thrive, there glucose
factories will flourish. Glucose differs
as much from cane sugar as tallow from
lard, or butter from olemargarine.
Both kinds of sugar are sweet, al
though in a very different degree, and
for many purposes one can be eut sti-
tuted for the other without the consu
mer being aware of the fact.
The manufacturers limit the term
“glucose” to the thick syrup which
neither solidifies nor crystallizes on
long standin g. The same substance in
a solid state is called “grape sugar,”
but there is no chemical difference be
tween the two. The name “grape
sugar” owes its origin to the fact that
a kind of sugar found in grapes and
other sweet fruits has the same chemi
cal composition as that made from
starch by methods that we shall pres
ently describe. This real grape sugar
is often seen as an incrustation on rai
sins and figs. Honey also contains
grape sugar, and it was there it was
first discovered by Lowitz in 1702,
Glucose can be made from any of
the carbo-hydrates, starch, dextrine,
cellulose, etc., but is generally pre
pared from starch. In this country
cornstarch is used, while abroad po
tato starch is preferred because it is
cheaper.
The uses of glucose are very numer
ous, although it is seldom sold to the
public under its real name ; but under
the ideas of “golden honey;” and
even as Vermont maple syrup, its sale
is very extensive. It is largely em
ployed by confectioners for making
candies, by wine dealers for strength
ening wine, by brewers to add*body to
their beer. Most of the sugars aud
table syrups contain glucose. Of sev
enteen samples tested by the Michi
gan Board of Health, fifteen con
tained glucose. Of twenty samples
anal.\ zed in Chicago, only one was
unadulterated. Of samples obtained
from all the leading sugar dealers iu
Buffalo, only one was found pure.
We do not believe that pure glucose
in an injurious substance when prop
erly made, but to sell it under the
name of cane sugar, when It is hut
one-third as sweet, is a fraud ; and to
charge the price of cane sugar, when it
costs but three cents a pound to make
it, is a swindle. That it payH to make
it is evident from the fact that there
are wore than twenty glucose factor
ies in this country turning out over
one million pounds per day of grape
sugar and glucose.
Last Wishes.
Borne eccentric people trouble them
selves greatly concerning the disposi
tion ot their bodies after death. An
Englishwoman bequeathed a surgeon
$100,000 on condition that he should
once in every year look upon her face,
two witnesses being present. Another
lady of economical turn of mind, de
sired that if she should die away from
home, her remains, after being placed
in a ccffln, should be inclosed in a
plain deal box, and conveyed by goods
train to her native town. “Let no
mention,” she states,“be made of con
tents, as the conveyance will not then
be charged more for than an ordinary
package.” A French traveler,recent
ly deceased, desired to be buried in a
large leather trunk to which he was
attached, as it “had gone around the
world with him three times and an
English clergyman and Justice of the
Peace, who, at the age of twenty-three
had married a girl of thirteen, desired
to be buried in an old chest he had se
lected for the purpose. In the matter
of burial, too, all sorts of whimsical
notions are cherished.
One man wished to be interred with
the bed on which he had been lying ;
another desired to be buried far from
the haunts of man, where nature may
“smile upon his remainsand a
third one bequeathed hia corpse for
dissection, after which it was to be put
into a deal box and thrown into the
river. Oue man does not wish to be
buried at all, but gives his body to a
gas company, to l e consumed to ashes
in one of their retorts, adding that
should the superstition of the times
prevent the fulfilment of his bequest,
his executors may place his remains
in a city cemetery, “to assistin poison
ing the living in that neighborhood.”
A person may approve himself of
cremation, but it is a little hard when
he requires his relatives to approve of
it also. Incases of this kind, it can
not be incumbent upon friends to re
gard the last wishes of the dying.
A Little Humor.
Bakers are the most persistent loaf
ers in the world.
A great module issued the following
directions for wearing a new style of
head gear: “With this bonnet the
mouth is worn slightly open.”
“Do you pretend to have as good a
judgment as I have?” exclaimed an
enraged wife to her husband. “Well,
no,” he replied slowly, “our choice of
partners for life shows that my judg
ment is not to be compared with
your3.”
In an editor’s room in Fleet street,
London, a skull is nailed up against
one of the desks. Underneath is
written in large letter’s “This is Smith,
who did uot like an article about him
self, and was rash enough to say go.”
Dr. Gunther says there are seven
thousand species of fish now known to
men of science. When a man sits on the
river-bank half a day, watching a
cork idly floating on the stream, and
comes home with a sunburned nose
and not a single specimen of these
seven thousand species, he is inclined
to think that Dr. Gunther has made a
mistake of several thousand.
Bev. Dr. Bamuel Ellis related at a
recent club meeting in Boston a num
ber of anecdotes about Dr. Chapin.
Once when Dr. Chapin was dining at
a hotel, he was served with what was
called barley soup on the bill of fare.
“This Is not barley soup,” said he to
the waiter: “it is barely soup.” He
once asked his daughter, who was
also a pronounced frunette and very
small. “Marion, why are you like a
certain Boston book-publishing
house?” “I give it up, father,” said
she, “Because you are little aud
brown,” was the answer.
Old Maggie Dee bad fully her own
share of Scottish prudence and econ
omy. Oue bonnet had served her .turn
for upward of a dozen years, and some
ladies who lived iu her neighborhood,
iu offering to make and present her
with a new one, asked whether she
would prefer nilk or straw as material.
“Weel, my laddies,” said Maggie,
after careful delibeiatien, “since you
insiston gi’en me a hanuet, I think I’ll
take a strae ane. It will maybe be a
niouthfu’ to the coo when I’m through
wi’t.”
Toad-in thk-Holr—Mix one pint
of fl >ur and oue egg v* ith milk enough
to make a batter O'ke that for batter
cakes), and a little sa't; grease dish
well with butter, put in lamb chops,
add a little wat* r, with pepper and
salt, pour batter over it, aud bake for
an hour.
Thoreau’s Highway.
Now I yearn for one of tho*e old,
meandering, dry, uninhabited roads,
wnich lead away from towns, which
lead us away from temptation; where
you may forget iu what country y< u
are traveling; where no farmer can
complain that you are treading down
his grass; along which you may
travel like a pilgrim goiug nowhither;
where the spirit is free; where the
walls and flowers are not. cared for;
where your head is more in heaven
than your feet are on earth; which
have long reaches where you can see
the approaching traveler half a mile
off aud be piepared for him; some
stump and root fences which do
not need attention; where it makes .
no odds which way you face, whether
you are goiug or c )ming, whether it is
morning or evening, midday or mid
night ; where you can pace when
your breast is full and cherish your
moodiness ; where you are not in false
relations with men. The trees must
not be too numerous nor the hills too
near, bounding the view ; a way where
no geese hiss along it, but only some
times their wild brethren fly far over
head ; where the small red butterfly is
at home on the yarrow, and no boy
threatens it with imprisoning hat;
the road whence you may hear a whip-
poor-will or a quail on a nrd summer
day. Ah! there is the road where
you might adventure to fly, and make
no preparation till the time comes—
there I can walk and stalk and plod.
Boys Will Be Boys.
An Exchange says: A boy will
tramp 247 miles in one day on a rabbit
hunt aud be limtier in the evening;
when, if you ask him to go across the
street and borrow Jones’ 2 inch augur,
he will be as stiff as a mea -block.
Of course, he will. And he will go
swimming all day and stay in the
water three hours at a time and splash
and dive and paddle aud puff, and
next morning he will feel that an un
measured insult has been offered him
when he is told by his mother to wash
his face carefully, so as not to leave
tbe score of the ebb and flow so plain
to be seen under the gills. And he’ll
wander around a dry cieek bed all
the afternoon piling up a pebble fort
and nearly die off vhen his big sister
wants hiai to please pick up a basket
of chips for the parlor stove. Aud
he’ll spend the bigg st part of the day
trying to coruera stray mule or a bald-
backed horse for a ride, and feel that
all life’s charms have fled when it
comes time to drive the cow-) home.
Aud he’ll turn a ten-acre lot upside
down for ten inches of angle-worms,
and wish for the voiceless tomb when
the garden demands his attention.
But all the same, when you want a
friend who will stand by you and
sympathize with you and be true to
you iu all kinds of weather, enlist one
of those same boys.
Unbalanced Justice.
“What!” exclaimed an Austin Jue-
tice to a colored culprit, “have you
the audacity to say to me you do not
recognize this pocketbook?” “Yes,
sah.” “But It was found in your pos
session.” “Iu my what>did-yer-say
Jedge ?” “Iu your possession. This
pocketbook was found in your pocket,
sir.” “Jedge, you has deue tole two
stories about dat ar. Fust, yer said hit
was foun’ in my possession, and den
yer ’lowed hit was foun’ in my poc
ket. Bofe dem yarns can’t be true.”
The Justice called the culprit to order
and, once more producing the pocket-
oook, said : “You denied just now any
knowledge of this pocketbook. I now
ask you again, did you ev«r see this
pocketbook before?” “Why, of course.
Hit am de tame one you showed me a
minute ago. Yer must be losing yer
mind, Jedge.” Remauded to jail
without bail.
Petroleum for Fuel.
Recent trials for burning crude pe
troleum for generating steam for
steam vessels seem to indicate that we
may he on the eve of a marked revolu
tion in the use of fuel for obtaining
power. Enough has been done to
demonstrate the entire feasibility of
substituting crude oil for coal. De
spite all the Ingenuity of man, no
system has yet been devised whereby
coal has been made to yield in prac
tice its full theoretic value as a fuel.
In tiie locomotive trials recently it
was shown that the entire
product* of the consumption of
crude oil, atomized aud heated by
super heated steam, could be directly
and economically applied to producing
power with a large saving iu labor
end stowage of eoul. In the case of a
steamer burning petroleum, more
than one-half the engineer’s force
might be di-pensed with. In a vessel
like the Ssrvia there would thus be a
saving in wages of about $1 600 per
month ; of rations amounting to 30
cents a day, or about $676 a month';
besides the value of the quarters which
could be used as freight room. In ad
dition there would be a saving in
bunker room of at least 25 per cent, in
favor of crude petroleum Steam
could be raised in quicker time with
oil and at less cost than with coal. Pe
troleum, it is claimed, can be applied
to the present type of boiler at tri ling
expense, and it i* hoped that after
another series of experiments by en
gineers of the Navy, similar to those
conducted at the New York Navy
Yard, the new fuel may be used in
the Government vessels.
The Summer Solstice.
On the 21st of Jane, at 8 o’clock in
the moriing, according to The Scien
tific American, the sun enters the sign
Cancer and inaugurates the great phy
sical epoch known as the summer sol
stice. He has reached his extreme
northern declination of twenty-three
and a half degrees, and just grazing
the tropic of Caucer, pauses for a few
days in his course before turning his
steps from our northern clime. It
would seem as if our hottest days
should occur about the 21st of June,
when the sun’s perpendicular rays fall
upon this portion ol the globe. But
such ii not the case. As midsummer
appro iches the quantity of heat re
ceived from the sun during the day is
greater than the quantity of heat lost
during the night, and there is there
fore an increase of heat each day. The
daily increase reaches its maximum at
the summer solstice. B it the heat gar
nered up by the process causes an ac
cession of heat each day until the heat
lost during the night is just equal to
that received during the day. This
happens sometime in July or August.
Our hottest weather for this reason oc
curs some time after the summer sol
stice, ustas the hottest part of the day
is sometimeafter midday, and the
coldest part of the night toward
morning.
The Extermination of Salmon,
The destruction of fish seems to be
going on in a terrible way, both up in
Oregon and at Lake Tahoe, as the
following two items will show: The
first item notes that a gentleman, who
came down from the Cascades lately,
states that one ot the fish wheels there
caught 4100 salmon in 24 hours. The
fish appear to be running in vast num
bers*, as he saw a man with a dip-net
catch 78 at the head of an eddy in less
than an hour. He caught three at one
scoop. The fish, in makinga passage of
the cataract, are compelled to keep
close to the shore, and so are readily
captured. A law must be passed by
the next Legislature to put a stop to
this wholesale destruction salmon.
The second item from ihe Reno Oa-
zt.tie states “that 1200 pounds of Tahoe'
trout were shipped below by express
one night. Of this amoun' H. D. Bur
ton caught 400 pounds. For the past
two weeks an average of 1000 pounds:
has been shipped through Wells,.
Fargo & Co.’s express at this place
daily. There is littleoredit in catching
trout at Tahoe at present. Women
and babes aud sucklings are catching
their Btrings of from 40 to 80 trout in
the space from one to three hours.”
Cured of Stammering.
Miss Fox tells an amusing anecdote,,
in her journal, one which illustrates
the value of certificates ot cure :
Mr. Gregory told us that going the
other day by steamer from Liverpool
to London, he sat by an old gentle
man who would not talk, but only
answered his inquiries by nods or
shakes of the head. When they went
down to dinner, he determined to
make him speak if possible; so he
proceeded,—
“You’re going to London, I sup
pose ?”
A nod.
“I shall be happy to meet you there;
where was your quarters?”
There was no repelling this, so his
friend with the energy of despair,
broke out,—
“I-I-I-I-T-I’m g-g-g-going to D-D-D-
Dootor Dr-Br-Br-Brewster to be c-c-o-
cured of this el-sl-slight im-impedll
merit in my sp-ap-epeech.”
At this instant a little white face
which had not appeared before popped
out from one of the berths and struck
in, “Th th-th-that’s the m-m-m-man
wh-wh-who c-o c-c-o-cured me !”