MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 33, 16 August 1864, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Father Mathew's Labottbs.— By 1543, the. consumption of spirits (whicli had been. 12,296;000 -gallons four years before) had sunk to 5,290,650 gallons, only 500,000 more than •it had been in 1802 ; the number of commitments had droppedfrom 12,049 to 8,620 ; the sentences to transportation from 916 to 482, aiid the sentences to death from 66 to 16. Father Mathew had destroyed half the crime of the land, and GJ-eorge "Ree, the great Dublin distiller, could say to him : — " No man Has done me greater injury than you have, Father Mathew ; bufc I forget all in the great good you have done my country." Printing- without Ikk. — A gentleman, a large capitalist, and one of the most successful inventors of the 'day, has succeeded in chemically treating the pulp, during the process of manufacturing printing paper, in such a manner that when the paper is impressed upon the uninked types the chemical particles are crushed, and a perfect black impresion is the result. The advantages sought to tie J obtained is the discarding ink and rollers ; and by revolutionising printing machinery and printing from a continuous roll of paper it is calculated that the time occupied in impressing large quantities of paper will be nominal in comparison to the requirements of the present day. Cleanlineiss in the printing office would thus become proverbial, and the time now wasted making and distributing rollers obviated. "We have been assisting this gentleman in some parts ofhis experiments, and further information is withheld at his own request, until letters patent shall be obtained. — London Telegrayphical Advertiser. A New Method cor Cooling- Booms. — The ADelhi Gazette publishes a letter from Professor Jules Duval, of Oran, in Algeria, in which that gentleman explains liis method of cooling barracks and hospitals in hot climates. It is known, he says, that it is possible to anchor a balloon over any particular spot, subject only to extraordinary accidents, such as violent hurricanes of wind; and the conclusion was also arrived at, from communications from Professor G-laisher and Mr. Coxwell, that from an elevation of 9,600 feet, atmospheric air could be produced in the^ hottest season, of a temperature of 40 degrees F: Acting on these data the Professor had a balloon constructed, to inflate which 38,000 cubic feet of gas was required, and the cost of which amounted to £89 sterling. At six a.m., on the 18th June last, the balloon ascended, carrying with it M. Eenaud. At half-past seven a.m., the thermometer in the hospital stood at 106° F. The Professor now ordered an air pump to be worked, and almost immediately the thermometer fell to 79 ° . F. The mercury continued to fall steadily, till at last it reached 53° F., when every one in the room was obliged to be covered up with blankets, or to assume European clothing. "My triumph," says the Professor, "was complete, and the change in temperature in half an hour so striking that it will stamp my memory to my dying day." Patients sufiering from fever, dysentery and cholera then in hospital, recovered as if by a miracle. A Beal Mermaid. — On the coasts of Sumatra, Sir Stamford Baffles used to observe the species of sea cow called a "mermaid." The only similarity to the human female in this creature is in the position of the breasts, and the manner of nursing'' the young. The animal is tenderly attached to its offspring, and when they are removed, calls them with a loud, continual moan, and sheds tears. There is surely here sufficient to account for the old fable of the mermaid and her semihuman ways. — London JELeview. Holloway's Pills. — Unusually hot weather in the summer months is often productive of unpleasant consequences to many. The liver, the stomach, and bowels, in such cases, are more or less seriously affected, so that the natives of England are, at certain seasons, liable to some of the disorders which range in warm climates. People cannot ha,ve a more powerful curative than Holloway's justly celebrated Pills. They cool and purify the blood, a,nd render the system less liable to any sort of irregularity ; or, when disease is present, they abate its force, and at last, totally' destroy it. Dysentery, billiousness, acidity of stomach, sick . headache, and debility soon disappear before a course of the admirable Pills.