INTERCOLONIAL EXTRACTS.

Southland Times, Issue 1205, 4 February 1870, Page 3

INTERCOLONIAL EXTRACTS.

Mr Neville, a commission agent at Hamilton, was, on Friday, poisoned by eating some lozenges he was carrying in his pocket, together with a packet of " vermin destroyer," the paper of which had burst. "While eating the lollies he experienced a bitter taste in his month, and shortly afterwards alarming symptoms manifested themselves. .Dr. Scott, when called in, found him suffering from rigidity of the limbs, and other ! indications of poisoning by strychnia. The usual remedies were successful, and the patient is recovering. During harvest operations there was tried (says the Argus) at Mr Saunders's farm between Pentridge and the Moonee Ponds the nearest approach we can expect for some time to a reaping and binding machine. This is the Marsh Harvester, made by Warder, Mitchell, and Co., of Springfield, Ohio, and imported from America by Bobinson and Co., of Melbourne, to try how it will answer for this country. The reaping is performed as with an ordinary machine, and two men are carried on a platform at the side to tie the sheaves. About the cutting part of the machine we need only say that it is quite different from that of any in use here, the motion to the knifebar being given by a long wooden rod and a lever, so that there is perfect smoothness of action without noise. The swathe, as it falls from the knives, is taken to the side, and raised over the driving wheel by an endless canvas belt, which leaves it on a sort of shelf until enough is collected to form a sheaf. The two men stand beside this, make their bands, and tie the sheaves as fast as collected — at least they oughirto do so, but without frequent stoppages this can only be done by very nimble fingers. During the trials last week, in a rather light crop of wheat, the machine did it 3 work perfectly ; but the binders, being quite unused to such speed, were not by any means fast enough for it. . "With modifications . and . alterations in proportion to render it suitable for the heavier crops to be encountered in thfs country, the Marsh Harvester promises to be in as great demand here shortly as it ia in America. A correspondent residing at Jackson's Creek, Balla Bulla, writes to urge us to make known what she alleges to be a very important and successful method of treating burns and scalds, no matter how severe or dangerous. She states that for more than five and twenty years she has employed the remedy w'th invariable success, never one case of failure having occurred within her experience. The remedy is simple in the extreme, being simply to cover the burnt or scalded part with common salt, whiuh is to be kept on for at least a couple of hours, and in severe cases as much as four and twenty. In the case of a person burnt through falling into a quantity of scalding fluid, her method is to cover the patient up in salt, and pile it over the burn so a3 to entirely exclude the air, when it is asserted, if the skin is not broken, the sufferer will be quite better in a couple of days. If however the skin is pealed off or burnt through, the mode of treatment is the same, but in place of the skin being restored to its normal condition, there will be a thin healthy crust formed over the wound in less than twenty-four hours. The only other treatment the wounds will need is said to be, that they should be covered with an oiled rag, and if the crust should crack, and blood exude, it ia alleged that a few grains of powdered sugar will complete the curative work. The simplicity of the remedy, which is not by any means a novel one, although its merits are perhaps not generally recognised, should much enhance its value, if found to be all our correspondent represents it. One thing however, is certain, that the lady herself has great faith in it, and is evidently sincere in her conviction that if it were followed, many lives would be saved vrhicb. are at present lost. M'Cullochism seems to be oa the wane in Castlemaine, as its organ in that place, the Daily News, has ceased to exist, and the Mount Alexander Mail remains in sole possession of the field. :