Amusing and Instructive.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 344, 25 January 1866, Page 1

Amusing and Instructive.

Cold Drinks in Hot Weather. —We noticed not long ago the fallacy of the idea that it is bad to plunge into cold water when we are heated. Dr M‘Gavin gives, in a paper “ On the danger of cold drinks in harvest,” some corresponding facts about drinking cold water. There have been lately several fatal accidents among harvesters in Scotland, owing to the general belief that if you are ever so hot, water on which the sun has been shining can do you no harm. Here is the mistake :—“ Cold liquids at the freezing point or a little above it rarely produce dangerous effects, while those ranging from 51 degrees to 53 degrees are, if the body is heated and fatigued, commonly followed by serious results.” The explanation is just the same as that which answers for the cold' bath —the reaction is greater the colder the water. It is very hard indeed (as most of us know} to get a reaction after a bath of about 56 degrees. Another reason ■vrhj vexy cold drinks do not hurt is because take less of them at a time. Ices are eaten by spoonfuls, iced water is drunk by sips, sherrvcobbiers by small sucks; thus in every case tho fluid gets partly heated in the mouth, and also covers a very small extent ot mucous membrane. Ico, too, after dinner can do little harm. In South America a native rarely travels without some Indian corn-flour to mix with his water, just as we nmke a, drink for horses. This prevents any evil ©fleets from water drinking; it also stimulates the action ot the gastric juice, as do the lumps of toast lu soup, which are not without their “hygienic” use. When you are tired and hot, then, remember always to drink by mouthfuls ; you will quench your thirst better, and save all risk to your stomach. Some people are stricken down at once after the cold draught, as if by apoplexy ; others get a chill, followed by a more or less reaction. If the reaction is normal, all is well; but if too much blood is drawn to the interior of the body in or Jer to restore the equilibrium between the skin and stomach, iu three or four days congestion and inflamation set in, of lungs, kidneys, brain, or of the stomach itself, and make you regret you did did not drink according to Dr M‘Gaven’s rule.— Pall Mall Gazette.

_ The Dundalk Democrat says :—A great sensation has been created by the retirement to a conin Leitrim of the two youngest daughters of the late Henry Grattan, Esq. These young ladies, by their father’s will, forleit their ample fortune of £20,000. ,

“ What do you propose to take for your cold ?” said a lady to a sneezing gentleman. “ Oh, I’ll soil it very cheap,” was the reply j “ I wont higgle about the price.”

An original way of answering two questions at a time : —“ Her?, Biddy, my darlint, what’s the time o’night, and where’s the paraty puddhm P” “Its 8 (ate) sir”

A placard in the window of a patent medicine vender in the Eue St Ildnoro, Paris, reads as fellows : —“ The public are requested not to mistake this shop for that of another quack just opposite.” Housewifery.—An ancient art, said to have been fashionable among young girls and wives ; now entirely out of use, or practised only by tbe lower orders.

Tbe I'rench papers hare a good hit at England, asking our Government why, as they were so ready to support and settle Continental questions upon the system of nationalities, they do not apply the same principle to Ireland. The attempt to lay the Atlantic cable has for a t.mc terminated in a disaster. Wo have witnessed the termination, but, until the they succeed in fishing the cable up again from the depths of the ocean we cannot hope to see the “ end” of if. Explicit,—'On the sands at Scullercoats, near Tynemouth, a board has been fixed on which is inscribed the following notice:— <; Any person pa-.'ing beyond thus point will bo drowned, by order of the magistrates.”