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Sanitary and Scientific.
A little extract of ginger mixed with
hot water and sugar will counteract
the bad effects of a wetting.
Since the introduction of the electric
light, the matter of its effect on the eye
has been much di°cuH8ed. The result
of a recent investigation by Parisian
scientists was that it was not hurtful.
An eminent Arabian naturalist and
physician of the tenth century, named
Temini, states that in ancient times
the bitumen of Judtea was used to
perserve the vine from the ravages of
parasites.
To produce light and dark shades of
gold leaf the metal is alloyed with sil
ver and copper. The addition of the
baser metals lessens the malleability,
and as the leaf is sold by superficial
measure, and not by weight, adultera
tion is kept at the minimum.
A reltsblepill for .dyspepsia : Dias
tase, 10 grains; pepsme, 50 grains ; ex.
‘tract of gentian, 50 grains; tartaric
aeid, 50 graint ; powdered rhubarb, 50
grains, and gentian, q. s. Divide into
three-grain pills, and silver, if desired.
Dose, two or three pills, shortly before
meals.
In 1880 the value of sugar of milk
imported into this country exceeded
f 25 000. The Boston Journal of Chem
istry asks if it is not about time that
some of our large cheese factories under
took the manufacture of s gar from
the whey, which yields about 5 per
cent, of this substance.
Bewer gas is disinfected in the Hos
pital de la Pitle, at Paris, by nitrous
oxide. The gas passes into an earthen
cylinder four feet high, filled with
charcoal and sprinkled with nitro-
sulphuric acid, the moisture in the gas
condenser setting free the nitrous oxide
contained in the acid, which destroys
the sulphuretted hydrogen and all
harmful matter.
The Italian Government is organiz
ing for the navvies who are employed
in the Tunnel, and still suffering from
anae mia and other ailments arising
from the bad air and high temperature
in which they are compelled to work,
a sanitarium for their reception high
up on the St. Got hard—pure mountain
air being the most efficient remedy for
diseases of this class*
In hardening small tools, says the
American Machinist, or any article of
steel that is thin or light and heats
quickly, it is advisable to remove, on
a grindstone or emery wheel, the scale
formed in forging before heating. The
sc le being of unequal density, if it is
not removed it is generlly impossible
to heat evenly ; besides the degree of
heat can be better observed if it is
removed.
The American Chemical Journal
says crystallized anhydrous glucose
has hitherto only been obtained from
alcoholic solutions. Arno Behr has
recently found that glucose can, under
certain conditions, be obtained as the
anhydride in crystallized form from
solutions in water. This result may
be accomplished by putting some crys
tallized anhydrous glucose in a con
centrated aqueous solution of glucose.
Surgeons know the value of the ex
pansive power of peas and other grain
in making anatomical preparations.
No one has any idea of the force exer
ted until a test of it is made. An
Italian vessel, laden with rice, put into
East London some time ago leaking
badly. A strenuous effort was made
to pump out the water and unload the
cargo. But the ri ce continued to swell,
and finally the vessel was violently
burst asunder.
A Connecticut mechanic has made a
trial of rotary files for finishing planed
surfaces. He is of the opinion that
quicker and truer work can be done
with these than with hand files, and
that the surface is in better shape
for trueing with the scraper. His ex
periments have been confined to the
planer; but he believes that his device
may be prtperly and economically
adapted to the lathe and milling ma
chine.
Btarch is much more readily convert
ed into sugar when under pressure
than otherwise. Not only, says a con
temporary, is the dlastatlc action of
the soluble albuminoids increased but
when the pressure is great the small
percentage of free acid which is found
in all cereals is sufficient to convert
rapidly the starch into sugar. It is a
matter of surprise, therefore, that
brewers do not mesh under pressure.
The St. Gothard Line not only has
the longest tunnel in the world but
twenty-four miles, or more than one-
fifth of the whole line, consists of tun
nels. Many of these have had to be
constructed in spiral or corkscrew
fashion, whereby, while making the
necessary rapid ascent from the valleys
to a higher elevation, the line is per
fectly protected against the avalanches
which are fnq lent at those spots
Libraries have their enemies in the
ships of worms, mites and beetles,
which destroy the bindings and bore
through the leaves of books. A case
is on lecord iu which a small wood
boring beetle (anobium pertinax),
which operated in a neglected library,
was found to have perforated twenty,
seven folio volumes in a straight line,
making a round hole through which a
string could be passed and the whole
number of volumes lifted at once.
How the Bey of Tunis Lives.
The palaces of Ithe Bey arp splendid
and incongruous ; the Bardo.au hour
from the capital, is a flue sample of
Oriental architecture and decoration,
spoiled by Parisian upholstery and
vulgar European carpets. Dar-el-Bey,
his only town residence, is magnifi
cent and neglected; his real abode is
in a separate building walled, and
standing in a garden, near theBardo.
He goes to the Bardo once a week, to
sit in judgment on his subjects, and
receive the Ambassadors and Consuls
of the Great Po wers ; and then there
if a brief stir, and the Court presents a
stately picture. “It is, however, only
an external brilliancy, and it cannot
deceive the visitor as to the misery
reigning within the Moorish Empire.”
Mahomed Es Sadock Pacha Bey is an
amjable enough prince, from all ac
counts, fond of children, but childless,
and very simple in his habits. He
has only one wife, and though he pays
her a formal visit of an hour’s dura
tion at her castle every day, he rarely
sees her, as the hour of his visit is
generally one appointed for devotion,
and on his arrival he goes to a small
room in the palace to pray.
He is supposed to knew nothing of
the management of his possessions;
before him all is splendor, behind his
back all is desolate ruin. Whichever
of his palaces he shall die in will be
dismantled and left to decay, for a Bey
must not live in a palace in which a
predecessor has died. “None of them
has had himself transported into the
street on death approaching, and
there are more than a dozen palaces in
Tunis to-day which cannot be used by
the Beys. A melancholy example of
this absurd custom is Mahomedia,
once the magnificent residence of
Achmet Bey, who had it built thirty-
five years ago at a cost of 10,000,000
francs. This palace with its secon
dary buildings and villas for ministers
and dignitaries, was situated two
miles out of town ; and when Achmet
Bey died, the furniture was moved,
the floors, glazed tiles, doors and win
dows, were broken out and dragged
to another palace. The heavy marble
columns,statues,the curbs of the wells,
etc., remained behind with the walls,
and he who passes those imposing
ruins to-day might think thousands of
years had passed over them. The
hand of the Arab destroys thus in our
day in the midst of peace, as his an
cestors, the Vandals, did centuries ago,
only in time of war. Bo much for
Oriental culture!
‘“Witness My Hand and Seal.”
A thousand years ago the masses,
the nobility, the poor and the rich,
were wholly unacquainted with the
mysteries of the alphabet and the pen.
A few men, known as clerks, who
generally belonged to the priesthood,
monopolized them as a special class of
artists They taught their business
only to their seminarists, apprentices ;
and beyond themselves and their few
pupils, no one knew how to read and
write, nor was it expected of the gene,
lality, any more than it would be
now-a-days that everybody should be
a shoemaker or a lawyer. Kings did
not even know bow to sign their
names, so that when they wafited to
subscribe to a written contraot, law or
treaty, which some clerk had drawn
up for them, they would smear their
right hand with ink, and slap it down
upon the parchment, saying, “ Wit
ness my hand.” At a later date,
some genius devised the substitute of
a seal, which was impressed instead of
the hand, but oftener beside the hand.
Every gentleman had a seal with a
peculiar devica thereon. Hence the
sacramental words now in use, “Wit
ness my hand and seal,” affixed to
modern deeds, serves at least the pur
pose of reminding us of the Middle
Ages.
The first sanitary commission under
the auspices of the Ontario Board of
Health met at Bt. Thomas, in that
Province. Judge Hughes read a paper
on the adulteration of food, in which
he recommends the public floggiug of
certain classes of adulterators.
A Frog’s Digestive Powers.
payment made was in full. Who will
gratify public curiosity in this respect ?
The Whal-y Br thers re.ently placed
in their acquarium a large edible frog
as a curiosity. That themonstei might
not be lonesome among the golden carp
and little turtles, a small frog was
placed iu to keep him company. Tue
sequel proved not onl\ that no love is
lost among frogs, but also *hat a frog’s
digestive power is equal to that of an
ostrich, which distills fat and plumage
from a diet of rusty nails. One fine
night the companion frog disappeared
and then the turtles began to be misled.
Five were sold from 15 in the tank,
but the sto^k stead ly dwindled till
only five remained. The turtles’ shells
measured on the average abou. 2 by 2$
inches. As tin turtles disappeared
the frog increased his rotundity, and
his aldertnanic proportions at last ex
cited suspicion that the batrachian was
swallowing his neighbors. A confer
ence was held aud it was decided that
the frog should be opened for tbe good
of tbe community in which he dwelt.
The frog sat innocently blinking, but
moved for no s ay of proceedings while
the knife was being whetted for his
dissection. He died without even
squealing, and when his stomach was
explored one turtle was found as lively
as Jonah in the whale, waiting for
something to turn up. He had spent
a night in solitary confinement, and
was well drugged. There were rem
nants of several turtles in the Irog's
stimach, which showed that he was
not wrongfully executed. The one
saved had been long enough in the
frog for the digestive acids to worK
upon his shell, which was soft and
sloughing off along the edges He was
replaced iu the tank, and now is known
as the “ Jonah ” of the lot. He meas
ures 2£ by 3 inches across the shell and
is as lively as a cricket. This investi
gation showed that a frog oan digest
turtle shell as well as meat. No more
frogs will be favored with such feeding
grounds.
Statistical.
The taxable property of Boston is
estimated at 1672,490,100.
An ordinary freight-car costs about
$700, and an ordinary mail and bag
gage-car about $3,500. An ordinary
passenger coach costs about $7 500. An
ordinary palace-car costs from $12,000
to $14,000, and may be turned out at
Pullman in about two weeks. The
capacity of the Pullman Works admits
of the building at one time of 125 mrs
of various patterns.
The wheat yield of Minnesota, for
1882, Is placed at 38,000,000 bushels,
and of that State and Dakota combined
at 55,000,000 bushels, though oife au
thority places the yield of Dakota at
22,000,000 bushels. It is conceded in
all hands that unless bad weather in
jures the harvest that it will be the
greatest ever reaped in that country.
During the latest fiscal year closing
July 31st, the United States govern
ment sold 13,000,000 acres of tbe public
domain. It is estimated that during
the same period the various states
holding public lands, and the rail
roads, disposed of about 7,000,000 acres *
The great bulk of the whole amount
has been sold in moderately small
tracts to actual settlers.
The growth of the wool interest on
the Pacific Slope is something marvel
ous. California is now the foremost
sheep breeding State in the union.
The census statistics for 1880 show a
grand total of 42,381,389 sheep in all
the States and Territores, California’s
share being 4,152,319, or nearly one-
tenth. The next highest State is Ohio,
with 3 902,000. New Mexico had 2,-
088,881, and Michigan 2,189,889. The
Pacific States and Territories stand
credited as follows : California, 4,152,-
349; Oregon, 1,083 162 ; Washington,
292,883; Nevada, 133,695; Idaho, 27,-
326; Colorado, 746,442; Arizona, 76,-
622; total, 6,512,380. That is over 15
per cent of all the sheep in the union ;
and the production of them has been
the work of less that twenty-five years.
A British syndicate, headed by the
Duke of Manchester, has purchased
from the Canadian Pacific Railroad
Company 5,000,000 acres: of laud, a por
tion of the government grant to that
road. The purchase money paid over
to the company amounted to over $15,-
000,000. The land is not in one or sev
eral large bodies, but comprises every
fifth section throughout the entire
land grant. Immediate steps will be
taken to colonize Euglish aud Scotch
farmers upon the agricultural lanus.
There must be a very large amount of
timber land Included iu the purchase,
The exact contract price per acre has
not been given to the public. It would
be gratifying to know how much over
$15,000,000 was paid, aud also if the
A method iu practice among the
best butter-makers iu England for !
rendering butter firm aiul solid during
the hot weather is as follows : Carbo
nate of soda aud alum are used for the
purpose, made into powder. For
twenty pounds of butter one teaspoon- j
fulofsoda and alum are miuglecl to
gether at the time ot churuing and
put into the cream. The effect of tnis
powder is to maae the butter come
firm and solid, and to give it a clean,
sweet flavor. It does not enter into
the butter, but its action is upon the
cream, and it passes off’ with the but
termilk. The ingredients of the pow
der should not be mingled together
until required to be used, or at the
time the cream is in the churn ready
for churning
Itemical.
A cheap paint is made for brick
wall by simply mixing up good hy
draulic cement in water. The natural
tint Is neutral and pleasing, but can
be readily varied. This paint cannot
be washed off' by storms, nor peeled
off by the sun.
A Paris company is trying the dis
tribution of power for small workshops
by means of vacuum. It has already
built the service tor 700 yards and
operates successfully. A powerful
engine with air pumps makes a vacu
um of about three-quarters of an at
mosphere, with which motors are con
nected.
MM. Mace de Lepinay and Neati
were some time since on a mountain
excursion and spent some five hours
among the snow. When they returned
they found all artificial light in the
town to appear distinctly green, and
this effect of temporary daltonism in
duced by fatigue lasted about three
hours.
In the rivers rolling to the sea, says
the American Contract Journal are
millions of horsepower daily running
to waste. We do not appreciate the
brook and river because they are so
near and have been there so long
Had they commenced flowing but to
day we would have hastened to har
ness them.
A German paper says that cheese is
made in Thuringia aud S ixony from
the pulp of boiled potatoes mixed with
sour milk. These cheeses have their
advantage over other kinds, that they
‘do not engender worms and keep fresh
for a number of years, provided they
are placed iu a dry situation and in
well-closed vessels.
Is iron to go out of fashion ? A
young man at Pittsburg proposes to
make nails from Bessemer steel to
weigh but half as much as the iron ar
ticle, and yet be so stiff that they can
be driven into the hardest wood and
tough enough to clinch, and has in
vented a machine which is said to cut
them three times as fast as the oid
kind are made.
Compound armor plates, iron faced
with steel, will probably be used by
the French Government in building
men-of-war. Iron backing gives the
required tenacity and the steel resists
penetration. When steel alone is
struck it fractures aud fails to pieces,
and heavy shot easily passes through
a considerable thickness of iron.
False Hair.
Statistics on the subject of false hair
are novel enough to be interesting.
The English Journal of Applied Sci
ence publishes an analysis of the con
tents of a false tress containing 3,640
hairs. Of these 13 hairs were contrib
uted by a Russian woman ; 2 only by
a Swede; 68 by three different Euglish
girls; 126 by two Italian girls ; 19 by
a Tunisian girl; 82 by two German
women—529 hairs, in short, for for
eigners not French. The French
hairs subjected to this analysis resulted
in giving the following account of
themselves: 317 were aristocratic—
from the tresses of fashionable ladies;
927 were contributed by the middle
classes; 518 by servants, working-
girls, etc., 1,338 by the demi-monde;
16 by a male vagabond, perhaps a
gypsy whose hair had grown so long
that he could sell ii—all of whioh
makes: 629 miscellaneous hairs, 3,111
French hairs, 3,6ib total. The numer
ical preponderance of French hairs is
largely due, of course, to the fact that
Paris is the centre o the capillary
trade.
The steamer Danville, 1850 tons reg
ister, built for the Baltimore, Chesa
peake and Richmond Steamboat Com
pany was launched at Baltimore. She
will take the place of the West Point,
destroyed by fire; and her cost, when
completed, will be $125,000.
A So-Called Constant Battery.
Mechanical agitation has been
adopted sometimes to reader the cur
rent \iom certain voltaic batteries con
stant by disengaging the gases which
collect on the negative plate. Heating
has been reei ntly applied by an Italian
engineer, Signor Gaudini, with the
like effect in the case of a cell consist
ing of a cast iron pot oi vessel contain
ing a porous clay vase in which was
placed a plate of carbon, while a zinc
cylinder surrounded the vase as a pos.
itive electrode. The exciting liquid
was a saturated solution of chloride of
sodium, and the depolarizer a super
saturated so ution of bichromate of
potash and sulphuric acid. When in
a cool state this cell gives a strong but
rapidly falling current ou being work
ed continuously. If, however, it la
placed over a small gas heater so as to
raise its temperature to about 100° C.,
the current keeps very constant and is
very powerful. Crystals of bichro
mate of potash dropped into the depola
rizing solution from time to time serve
to keep up the strength of current.
When cool such a cell gave an elec
tro-motive force of 2.10 volts and au
internal resistance of 0.82 ohms.
When hot the electro-motive force
rose to 2.44 volts, with a resistance of
0.71 ohms. Heating, therefore, in
creases the electro-motive force of the
cell and the conductivity of its solu
tions, while at the same time it lessens
the polarization of the electrodes.
Animals Not Necessarily
Mortal.
According to The Journal of Science
all animal life is not, of necessity, sub
ject to death. Let us suppose, says
The Journal, that we are watching
through a microscope one of these
minute single cell creatures known as
a protozoan. We see it expanding
into an ellipsoidal figure, which be
comes for a time longer and longer.,
It then begins to contract about what
we may, for the sake of popular intelli
gibility, call its equator. It assumes
the form of two nearly globular bodies,
connected, dumb-bell like, by a nar
row neck. This neck becomes nar
rower, and at last the two globes are
| set free, and appear as two individuals
I in place of one! What are the relations
of these two new beings to the antece
dent form and to each other? We ex
amine them with care; they are equal
iu size, alike in complexity, or rather
simplicity, of structure. We cannot
say that either of them is more mature
or more rudimentary than the other.
We can find In their separation from
each other no analogy to the sepa
ration of the young animal or the egg
from its mother, or to the liberation
from a seed from a plant. Neither of
them is parent, and neither offspring.
Neither of them is older or younger
than the other.
The process of reproduction, or
rather of multiplication, must, so far
as we can see, be repeated in the same
manner forever. Accidents excepted,
they are immortal; and frequent as
such accidents must be, the individuals
whom they strike might, or rather
would, like the rest of their com
munity, have gone on living and split
ting themselves up forever. It is
strange, when examining certain in
fusoria under the microscope, to con
sider that these frail and tiny beings
were living not potentially in their
ancestors, tJht really in their own per
sons, perhaps in tbe Laurentian epoch.
Flies and the Castor-Oil Plant.
Observations made by M. Rafford, a
member of the Societe d’ Horticulture
at Limoges, show that a castor-oil
plant QEioinus communis) having been
placed in a room infested with flies,
they disappeared as by enchantment.
Wishing to ascertain the cause, he
soon found under the castor-oil plant.
a number of dead flies, while a large
number of bodies remained clinging
to the under surface of the leaves, it
would, therefore, appear that the
leaves of the castor-oil plant give out
au essential oil or some toxic principle
which possesses strong insecticide
qualities. Castor-oil plants are in
France very much used as ornamental
plants in rooms, and they resist well
variations of atmosphere aud temper
ature. As the castor-oil plaut is much
grown and cultivated iu all gardens,
the Journal d } Agriculture points out
that it would be worth while to try
decoctions of the leaves to destroy the
green flies aud other inseots which in
summer are so destructive to plants
aud fruit trees. The plaut is also
common enough In this country, and
readers can therefore readily test the
accuracy of these Frenoh reports.