Amusing and Instructive.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 364, 5 April 1866, Page 1

Amusing and Instructive.

Bantingism:. —ln the physiological 'section of the British Association, at its recent meeting, there was a discussion on Bantingism. Dr. Davey, in his paper—“ Is the opinion that a diet of animal food conduces to leanness well-founded on facts ?”—declared that animal food produced fatness, and gave the results of many experiments proving his point. The Hon. Joseph Howe (member of the Legislature of Nova Scotia) gave a very amusing ar.ti-Banting address, in the course of which he declared that the reason why the English ladies got so fat as they got old, and the American ladies got thin, was that the English ladies drank beer, and the American ladies drank tea. The meeting took Mr Howe to task with “ Oh, oh!” on his remarking that an English lady thought nothing of taking a pint of beer for lunch or supper; so he reduced it to half a pint. Dr. Jordon, Dr. Acland, and other gentlemen joined in the discussion, and the conclusion gradually agreed upon was that although persons might be fattened by feeding on saccharine matter only, yet they might also grow fat on animal food, and that it was dangerous to make violent changes in the habitual support and food '*of the system. Quite a number of both the fat and lean kind slyly got into the audience, with a desire doubtless to improve in size or grow beautifully less; and they were encouraged by the speakers to remember that nature loved variety, and meant that some should he fat and others lean. A New Offence. —At the County Magistrates’ Court, the other day, a constable, in “ stating the case” against a prisoner, said that he found him “drunk and righteous.” Magistrate—“ Drunk and what t ” Constable—“ Drunk and righteous, your worship; very!” The prisoner was fined 20s and costs. —Liverpool Courier. Look Behind Yotj.— A soldier boasted to i General Hooker of the many wounds he had received in his face. Hooker, knowing him to be a coward, said to him, “ The next time you run away, you had better take care how you look behind you.” “ Which, my dear lady, do you think the merriest place in the world ? ” “ That immediately above the atmosphere that surrounds the earth, I should think.” —“And why so?”—“Because I am told that there all bodies lose their gravity." A man in a street car in St. Louis had his boots torn off by lightning. We shouldn’t have wondered to hear, in addition, that it “ shined ’em” also.—American Paper. Oney Air Anachronism-.— Conversing with a nobleman’s son who had sent for me to the neighborhood of Chancery Lane, by reason that the

proverbial hospitality of the chosen people would - not hear of his leaving the house in which he was guest, I gently hinted that it was hardly the thing, in these days, to order so many dressing cases, and furcoats with no possible means of paying for them. “ You’ve just hit it, my boy,” said the Honorable Roderio Doo, with a pleasing smile. “In these days. But is it my fault that I came so late into the world? Had I been one of my feudal ancestors, I should never have done these mean things. I should have swooped down like a gentleman, with my retainers, and simply taken the necessaries of life, or what were then such. * Don’t abuse me for being an anachronism, but lend me fifty pounds.” Which I did, but under protest.—Punch’s Table Talk. A Bearable Pun. —An illiterate vender of beer wrote over his door at Harrogate, "Bear sold here.” “He spells the word quite correctly,” said Theodore Hook, “if he means to apprise us that v the article is his own Bruin."