Household.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1175, 14 October 1882, Page 4 (Supplement)

Household.

USEFUL REMEDIES. The following remedies being both safe and efficacious will be found valuable when needed:— Earache.—Closing the mouths of infants and children, and simply blowing into the nose, is often a very valuable method of relieving a severe earache. Poison Oak, Ivy, and Sumach.—For the disagreeable effects caused by coming in contact with these plants, dissolve bicarbonate of soda in water—as much as the water will take up—and bathe the poisoned places freely every two hours. Muriate of ammonia may be used in the same manner. Choking.—As the sufferer may die before the physician arrives, it is well enough to know that speedy relief sometimes follows getting upon all fours and coughing. Another procedure, often successful, is for someone to blow forcibly into the patient’s ear. Foreign Substances in the Ear.—Children often get buttons, pebbles, etc., in the ear. In such cases dip the end of a suitable stick in melted glue, and carefully insert it in the ear until it reaches the substance. Then gently withdraw the stick, and the button or pebble will come out attached to its end. Another good plan is to take horse-hair of sufficient length, double it into a loop ; then, placing the patient on his side, pass the loop into the ear as far as it will go, turn it gently, and, at the first or second withdrawal, the substance will come out in the loop. Bleeding at the Nose.—A piece of brown paper folded two or three times and placed between the upper lip and the gum, will, in many instances, at once stop the bleeding. A vigorous motion of the jaws, as if in the act of mastication, will often check the bleeding. In the case of a child, a wad of paper should be placed in its mouth, and the child instructed to chew on it hard. Pressing the finger firmly upon the little artery that supplies the blood to the side of the face affected will usually check the bleeding. L. H. WASHINGTON, M.D., In the Phrenological Journal.

A MILLION YEARS.

Here is one way of conveying to flic mind some idea of what a million of years really is. Take a narrow strip of paper, an inch broad, or more, and 83 ft. 4 in. in length, and stretch it along the walls of a large hall, or round the walls of an apartment somewhat over 20 ft. square. Recall to memory the days of your boyhood, so as to get some adequate conception of what a period of a hundred years is. Then mark off from one of the ends of the strip one-tenth of an inch. The one-tenth of the inch will then represent one hundred years, and the entire length of the strip a million of years. It is well worth making the experiment, just in order to feel the striking impression that it produces on the mind. Could we stand upon the edge of a gorge, a mile and a half in depth, that had been cut out of the solid rock by a tiny stream, scarcely visible at the bottom of this fearful abyss, and were we informed that this little streamlet was able to wear off annually only one-tenth of an inch from its rocky bed, what would our conception be of the prodigious length of time tbat this stream must have taken to excavate the gorge ? We should certainly feel startled when, on making the necessary calculations, we found that the stream had performed this enormous amount of work in something less than a million of years.— Croll on “ Climate and Time.”

LIVE IT DOWN.

‘ There is a future for all who have the virtue to repent, and the energy to atone.’— Bulwer-Lytton. Yes, your fault has blurred your name; Such disgrace is hard to bear ; Yet for you there is an aim, Which should be your constant care— You must learn to live it down. True the cloud is like a pall; Error ever weaves such things; But the sky is over all; Morn has light upon its wings, If you only live it down. Yes, I know men look askance, Dreading any pitch to touch ; Women with a wondering glance, Fear to pity overmuch ; Still, I tell you—live it down. Patient be ; with spirit meek, Bear rebuffs a little while, Till true friends shall kindly speak, Meeting you with sunny smile, Seeing you can live it down. Labor! Oh, the worth of work, Chasing bitter thoughts away ; Never any duty shirk Which arises day by day ; That is how to live it down. Ask forgiveness—and forgive, Yet indulge not memories dark ; For you still may nobly live, Though for once you missed the mark— If you strive to live it down. ’Tis not easy ? That I own: What is easy that has worth ? Life is struggle, hid or known, Even from the hour of birth ; Yours the task to live it down. I have cheered you ? That is well: You will ponder on my words— So you say ; and I can tell They have touched some answering chorda Yes, I know you’ll live it down, Till the wrong may be forgot, Or remembered only be Like a half erased blot, Which men do not care to see— When indeed you’ve lived it down. Camilla Crosland. In Chambers Journal.