FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 177, 20 September 1879, Page 3

FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Reh rring to the question of sea-sick-ness, tin- “Continental Gazette” of January 23rd, ] 879, savs: —“ The many remedies (for sea-sickness) offered are powerless to conjure the enemy if he once lay his clutches on ns. The most effective antidote, or remedy, as yet known is a belt of silk,stitched and disposed to form parallel ribs, wherein is put titan tic iron powder, wnich is naturally magnetic, and divided in its whole length by another rib, which creates a ■constant electro-magnetic current, so that the iron powder is pretty equally distributed over the entire surface of the belt, and such a belt budded to the body befoi e setting out on a sea journey would •effectually prevent sea sickness. When the belt is on, the body is in a teal magnetic bath, and exerts its influence on the epigastrium, and consequently on the diaphragm, so that the stomach is kept in its normal state, free from those movements which as is well known create that dreaded feeling of nausea called sea•sickness.”

In one of his works on Ceylon Sir Samuel Baker, in speaking of-the city •of Aridnapoorah, the ruins of which he discovered, states it to be so extensive that the modern London is but a village compared to what it must have been, and he computes, from the size and ages of the trees grown amidst fallen temples and tablets inscribed with the unknown characters of a non Tbrgotten language, that prior to Julius Ctesar’s first visits to our savage and half-clothed ancestors, Ceylon must have been a country far advanced in civilization, and owning, perhaps, fleets and armies of her own; some of the architectural ruins, such as dams and aqueducts, which he describes, must have exceeded in magnitude many of the gigantic engineering undertakings of the present day. A gentleman was paying in a large sum of money into a bank at the. West End|of London, when a one hundredpound note war missed. In a moment a cab was called, and the number transmitted to the Bank of England. In a few minutes the note was presented, and the gold paid; and as is usual with the bank authorities, the person was followed and given in charge; but to the surprise of all, the 100. sovereigns had disappeared. How Hie rogue managed to obtain access •‘tv his accomplice without being detected in transmitting the money, is a mystery hut it was clone. The man did not get free, however, for the hand-writing on the note was proved to be his; and as he had given a false name and address, lie was prosecuted, and London was free of him for a time.

In a family in which there are two boys of about the same age, it is difficult to ascertain whose birthright it is to roll out the ash-board.

The Empress Catherine once sent Voltarie a small ivory box made with her own hands. The poet upon receiving it, ’got his niece to instruct him in knitting stockings ; and actually half finished a paii of white siik, when he became completely tired. .An this unfinished stale, he sent them to the empress, with a charming poetic epistle, replete with gallantry, in which he told her, “That as she had presented him with a piece of man’s workmanship made by a woman, he thought it his-duty to crave her acceptance, in return’ of a piece of woman’s work from the hands of a man.”

It is a rule of the Chinese Six Companies, San Francisco, that no Chinaman shall open a wash-house within a certain distance of oxxe already established. A Chinaman infracted the rule, and was ordered to close his shop. Ho refused. Next he received a formal notice that he must move and pay 20dols. Still he disobeyed. Soon he was missing. After a long search by white friends he was found chained in a collar, where he had been left to starve. He was released only to disappear again, and it is supposed that, by order of the secret tribunal, he has been murdered. The San Francisco ‘ Chronicle’ vouches for the truth of the story, and adds that many such could be told.