Amusing and Instructive.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 353, 26 February 1866, Page 1

Amusing and Instructive.

C jeious Seeing^. —Dr. H. Gibbons h iving remarked that in California the springs and streams frequently rise some time before the winter rains, and having been led to examine into the circumstances and c onsider the cause, has printed a note on the subject in the American Journal of Science. He says that, one mile from the foot of the hills, towards the bay of San Francisco, the country road is crossed by a small winter stream, never more than six feet wide, which became perfectly dry early in August. The channel of the stream is not more than two feet in depth. In the latter part of August Dr Gibbins was surprised to find in it a small pool of water the side of the road. On 4th September the wet space extended some fifty feet; on 9th October it had become a continuous running stream, discharging some five or six gallons per minute ; and this happened without a drop of rain. There is no great difficulty, Dr. Gibbons apprehends, in solving the phenomena. The water which falls in the winter and spring penetrates the earth and finds an impervious bed not far beneath the surface. This bed being more or less inclined, the water, of course gravitates laterally till it finds vent in the form of a spring. In the long days of summer, when the sun is fifteen hours above the horizon and almost vertical, and when the atmosphere is very arid, evaporation is so rapid as to exhaust the supply at the springs and cause them to disappear, or at least to diminish the supply, and carry off entirely the water from the bed of the rreain in the intervals of the springs. As the season advances the days become shorter, and the powerolthesnngrudutl ydiminishes. Evaporation becomes proportionately slower, and at length it is so retarded as not to carry off the percolation of the springs, and the springs first reappear, and then the streams. Sound Sleeper.— The celebrated actor Quin bad the faculty of sleeping soundly.—“ Whutsort of a morning is it, John?”—“Very wet, sir.”— “ Any mullet in the market?”—“ No, sir.”— “Then you may call me this time to morrow.” So saying, he composed himself to sleep, and got fid of the ennui of a day. Defeat of General Grant.— General Grant, the day before lie left the Chicago Fair, was obliged to capitulate to the ladies, who took him by storm. Mrs Livermore said to him : —“ These girls are djing to kiss you—but they don’t dare to do it.” “ Well," said the gallant general, “if they want to kiss me, why don’t they? Ko one has offered since I have been here.” Instantly about a hundred fairies pounced upon him. He attempted a retreat, but in vain ; he essayed to break through the rosy ranks, without success. Then, for the first time, he confessed himself vanquished and calmly awaited the event. Never was man subjected to such an ordeal. On came the maidens by squads, in file, or singly ; they hit him on the forehead, pelted him on the nose, • Hacked him on the cheek chin, and neck. There must be dozens of kisses lying around loos; hidden in the general’s whiskers. During this ordeal the hero of a hundred battle-fields blushed until his face became almost purple. At last the girls were partly appealed in their “ noble rage,” and he escaped. —Boston Post. An extraordinary phenomenon occurred lately in the Forest of Chantilly. A waterspout passed across the forest in less than five minutes, destroying almost everything in its passage for a width of 50 yards, and a length of nearly five miles. About 600 t rees, many of them of large tize, were either broken off close to the ground or torn up by the roots and shivered to splinters. Two of t he rides reserved for exercising the horses of M.M. Lupin and Aumont are so blocked up with the broken trees as to be altogether impassable. A priest in Posen has lately been sentenced by the Prussian Government to three months’ imprisonment for having introduced political subjects in one of his sermons.

SERIOUS OUTBREAK OF ASIATIC CHOLERA FROM THE USE OP IMPURE WELLS. The Privy Council have ordered an official inquiry to be made into the nature of the pestilence now raging at Thoydon, Epping, about twelve miles from London. The medical gentlemen who have given attention to the subject are divided in opinion as to whether or not it was the Asiatic cholera, the black fever of the West Indies, or the Russian Rinderpest now attacking the human system. The reason for thinking that it is a form of Rinderpest is, because a large quantity of manure from London dairy was purchased and brought upon the premises. The house where the pestilence has raged is situated at Thoydon, upon a high hill, and is half a mile distant from any other house, and before the disease made such frightful havoc was inhabited by a family named Groombridge, who farmed a considerable estate. In the early part of last week Mrs Groombridge returned from Weymouth, but was shortly afterwards taken very ill. Her daughter, very soon after, was seized with similar symptoms, and the medical attendant. Dr. M‘Nab was sent for and immediately attended them. Mi s Groombridge recovered but the daughter died'within six hours of the attack, viz., on Tuesday evening, the 3rd instant. The next morning Dr. M‘Nab was seized and died within a few hours. The following day Mr Groombridge was attacked and died, but Lis death was kept a secret from his wife. Friday week passed over and no death; but on Saturday week the groom was seized, and died within a few hours, though he himself, it is said, had not been in the house. The woman who laid his body out was shortly afterwards attacked, and died the following day. Mrs Groombridge was again seized with the disease aud died on T uesday. Another account states; —“ The cholera has made its appearance iu the neighborhood of Epping, atfd up to the present there have been twelve cases, out of which six deaths have occurred, but one of which is not attributable to the epidemic. The remaining cases have either recovered or are progres sing favorably. The circumstances leading to this sad occurrence are remarkable. Mr Groombridge, a farmer, residing at Thoydon, a village about two miles west of Epping, bad been to Weymouth for change of air, and while there he had a severe attack of cholera. He, however, got better, and re turned to his home on Sunday, the 24th cf September. On Tuesday, the 2tith, Mrs Groombridge was attacked, but recovered, although left in a very delicate state after it. On Saturday, the 30th, a little daughter of Mr Groombridge was attacked, and died in eight hours. The same night a boy wh > used to sleep in a room in one of the outbuildings was taken ill, but has recovered. These patients had been attended by Dr M‘Nab, sen., Dr. M‘Nab, jun., and Dr. Clegg, all of whom were unremitting in their atteu-. tion to the patients, but they were not long destined to work together. On Monday evening Dr. M‘Nab, sen., was seized with cholera, and was attended by his son and Dr. Clegg, but all their exertions could not save him for he died, on Tuesday morning, about ten hours after he was jßrst attacked. On Tuesday another daughter of Mr Groombtidge was taken ill, but under the treatment of the medical men above named, has recovered. The next day the housemaid was attacked, but has also recovered. The disease, however had not left the house, for on Friday last Mr Groombridge was again attacked, and died after an illness of ten hours. A man named Riley, a farm laborer, at work on the premises, was attacked by it on Friday night, and died early on Saturday morning. The mother of Mrs Groombridge, a lady eighty-seven years of age, also caught the disease on the same day, but is at present alive. Mrs Groombridge had got over the attack of cholera, and was doing very well until she beard that her husband was dead, and then she said she had nothing more to live for. She refused to take food or anything that was proper for her in her then state of liealtb; and the consequence was, that she soon sank aud died, but her death cannot be attributed to cholera. The next and last victim of this fearful malady up to the present time is Mrs Savilie, a poor wo-

man who went to lay Riley out. She was attacked a day or two after, and died on Tuesday, the 10th October. When Dr Clegg was called in to see the family of the Groombridgos, he discovered that there was a communication between the water-closet and the well from which the household drank, aud he at once put a stop to their using it. He also examined the neighborhood, and from what he saw he thought it necessary to write to the Privy Council. When the epidemic appeared, and proved so fatal the neighborhood was greatly alarmed, and very vigorous efforts were made to meet and check the evil. Mr Smee, a gentleman of independent property, has at his own expense, supplied the poor people twice a day with pure water, by means of water barrels or carts.