MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

North Otago Times, Volume I, Issue 8, 14 April 1864, Page 5 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Effects op MEECtrBY on Sheep. — Professor John G-amgee, in the Edinburgh Veterinary Review, draws attention to the mißchief arising from the recklesß use of mercurial ointment as a dressing for scabby sheep. Sheep, he says, and ruimnants are more readily poisoned by mercury than any other domestic animal ; and, in some instances, mercury appears to be the cause of I death directly, by its effects on the blood ; in I others it seems to kill by the varnish with which it covers the skin, which hinders the exhalations from that organ, it seems to produce an enfeebling of the digestive powerß, so that a change to a better diet proves fatal. Severe salivation and loosening of the teeth are common occurrences. Science v. Spieits.— Mr. J. Manning, an ingenious optician, who exhibits his cunning work at 24 Kegent-street, has constructed an instrument by means of which the spirits which are now haunting the several theatres and singingrooms may be seen and heard to a yet greater advantage. All sorts of writing on the wall and rapping under tables can be done by Mr. Man ning's spirits, with an appearance of reality which might deceive the quickest eye and ear. A hand appears on the canvas ; it writes a word and rubs it out again, but the spectator feelß for it in vain, for neither the hand which writes, nor the written words can be found by actual touch. Only the phantom pan obliterate what the phantom has written. The experiment is very strange and startling, but real science, after all, must beat the conjurors. We undertake that Mr. Manning and Mb fellow opticians will drive the Homes and Fosters quite out of the field.

How to cotraT in Chtjech.— A young gentleman happening to sit in a pew adjoining one in which sat a young lady, for whom he conceived a sudden and violent passion, was desirous of enI tering into a courtship on the spot ; but the place not suiting a formal declaration, the exigency of the case suggested the following plan : — He politely handed his fair neighbour a Bible open, with a pin stuck in the following text — Second Epistle of John, verse fifth :— " And now I beseech theo, lady, not as though I wrote a new Commandment unto thee, hut that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another." She returned ft, pointing to the second chapter of Ruth, verse tenth — "Then she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, seeing that I am a stranger ?" He returned the book, pointing to the thirteenth verse of the Third Epistle of John — " Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink, but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full." From the above interview a marriage took place the ensuing week. — Quebec Paper.

Extiuobdinaby Battue. — A battue of an extraordinary character has just taken place in the sewers of Paris. Taking advantage of the frost, which drives this particular gamo into covert, the owner invited a Christmas party to partake of the sport of rat killing. All the great sewerß were driven in one direction, till millions of rats — which fought among themselves like tigers as they were hunted along — were collected in the large drain by the bridge of Asnieres. Forty dogs were then let down into the sewers, and, after a fight which lasted 15 hours, and in which four dogs were killed and some blinded, no less than 110,000 rats wero dispatched.

A Matter of Taste. — We must say the pretty peripatics of Broadway presont a dazzling spectacle. Bright yellow cloaks with scarlet hoods, scarlet cloaks with yellow hoods, blue cloaks with white hoods, purple cloaks with orange hoods, and striped and chequered cloaks with crimson hoods moving continually in prismatic procession through that great exhibition thoroughfare, threaten with " colour blindness " the man of weak vision who ventures into the flare. The saffron, bright red, green, azure, and white and cream-coloured feathers wherewith the ladies in conflagration decorate their vivandiere hats planting the flaming tufts like torches in the forefronts of the same, add muchto the incendiary and auto defe-iah aspect, and deepen tho unpleasant impression produced upon feeble retinas by the blaze of their garments. It really seems as if New York beauty and fashion had determined to substitute for the fancy balls that were so much in vogue last winter a general street masquerade. One would never surmise that a tremendous war was sweeping off by thousands and tens of thousands the very flower of our population. — New York Times. Rathrk too Caheful. — The Independence says : — " The loss sustained by hoarding up money has just been exemplified at* Ostend. A respectable woman, aged 83, feeling her end approach, called her son to her, and told him to look in a certain place where he would find a bag containing a sum of money, wlu'ch belonged to him, and which she advised him to make good use of. She had, she said, laid it by for him in 1820, on the day of his fii'st communion. The son found in the bag 671 Dutch 10-florin pieces (about 14,000f). Had the old lady placed the sum out at compound interest, her son would now havo had a fortune of more than IOO.OOOf.

Tho Wicked Kinra. — I was awakened by the noiso of a door opening. I raised my head and saw Lious XV. At first he looked round the antechamber, here and there. The lights in the chandeliers were burning low. " There is nobody here, "said the King ; and then he began to walk up and down, sighing and murmuring in the tone of a man who has drunk himself sad. Presently lie paused before a large mirror, and after having considered himself along time in it, he pressed his hand on his forehead, his cheeks, his chin, and thus apostrophised himself: " Miserable wretch that thou art ! Murderer of thine own soul and body !" Then his pacing up and down, his groans, his sad monologue recommenced. At last he stopped again befove tho glass. " Thou wilt not die old," said he to his own image reflected there ; " not threescore years and ten ! — And hell ! — hell !" Five minutes passed whilst he stood looking at himself with horror. And then he muttered, "France! How is she goverened ?" Afterwards ; " But this supper to-night they say will be delicious — though all is weary — weary! Why cannot they give me something new ?" — Heroes, Philosophers, and Courtiers of the Time of Loins XVI.