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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.