General News.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3777, 4 February 1881, Page 3

General News.

-/ Nature is publishing a series of attractive articles on "Physics without Apparatus." In the latest number are given experiments for boiling water and melting lead on a piece of paper: Take a paper and fold it up, as school-boys do, into a; square box without a lid. Hang this ud to a walking stick by four threads, and. ', support the stick upon books or other convenient props./ Then a lamp or taper must be placed under this dainty cauldron. In a few minutes the water will boil. The only fear is lest the threads should catch fire and let the water spill into the lamp and orer the table. The flame must therefore not .He too large. The paper does not burn; because it is wet; and even if it resisted the wet it still would not burn throtlgl, because the heat imparted to it on one side by the flame would be rapidly conducted uway by the water on the other. Another experiment of a similar- nature, but perhaps even more striking, is as follows: Twist up the edges of a common playing card or other bit of cardboard, so as to fashion it Into a light tray. On this tray place a layer of small shot a*, bits of lead, and heat it over

the flame of a lamp.- The lead will melt, but the card -wflb not burn. It may be a liltb>-ebarred round the edges, but immediately below the lead it, will not be burned, for here again the lead conducts ' off the heat on onel side as fast as it is supplied on the other. ' The crop of apples raised during the year- in the United, States/is by far the largest that ~ was ever produced in a country teeming with appje orchards, and having an illimitable surplus to export. We ate' told that Washington^ Market, in New YorkYTSfiTtlae adjoining streets are "literally blocked with 1 barrels filled to repletion with ituib, while trucks and waggons of evejy kind are eDgvged\-in conveying apples "-from the receiving depots to the various commtai&n'itfi&ses:" From Philadelphia, Baltimore/^fliton, and Montreal come similar report^** that for many weeks past hardly a, vesseL .•'leftthe Eastern seaboard of the^Umted States without 'having a large^ consignmentPof'J&jericarit apples oh bomfd. 'One hundred thousand barrels are exported from these cities every succe«|«re week. Upon arriving at Liverpool, Glasgow, and* Londoti,~eaoa barrel is' sold at Vat eg vary* ing from seventeen to eleven shiltittgMq^ they <are J landed in excellent condition")" with b;ardly an apple damaged. They sjre, for'" the ihdtt, Jjart,. sold in" London "by . coster monger wKhe rate ot two or three for a pen^y-^vhile, by. the West end fruit shops,-the .fittest Newiiown -Pippins are retailed^at eigb-teen-petfefrajJozenv It Is obvious that,, at these **pri<ses, enormous profits, rauJtiibe made either by the ' American slippers orby the consignees in England. ' \A-:'n / ! v A remarkable case: has attracted some attention in medical? circles in Etalsnd. A woman riaattd^Mrs AiexandcrXaged 67, was staudl&| outside her house talking' to- a Mn Stdke^; when she was suddenly observed to j&sp for breath, and immo- ■ diately fall ttifrthe ground. She was tit once carried j indoors, and seen by a doctor:—Dr IVNeville deposed that h« wai called to Attend deceased, and found her quite dead', and perfectly cold.. About an hour afterwards a person came to his aufgery to inurm that the woman was alive. .He agafn went to the house, and tbifus gutter astonishment he found the boiiy,, warm. " Witness again exainined her at the heart, and endeavored to MntWince-. artificial respiration by brandy, pressing the ch**t, jQstL but without' effect. On Monda/J t»o days afterwards, he made a post mowem examination, assisted by Dr Leslie. ''On making an incision in the chest he., fojmd the cellular or arepla - tissues^'qmte jl^rm. examining the ao*ta a large irupture was discovered on its posterior kurfipe. Death must have been instantaneous a« the rupture was an; inch in length^ and^tirc same in breadth* It was a most extraordinary thing for the** body to ,be warm tavo days after deafch^ Witnel6~eould not account for the generation of heat,- except that the' heart had acted for some eonßid<*iiblrtime after the rupture. When he was called to examine deceased th'efif was not the slightest sound to be heard from the heart, and the ' woman was defed beyond .a donbt.-*-The" Coroner said it was the most singular case he had eft* b«jrd. —The jury returned a verdict in aocprdance with the medical evidence. y, ■ * ■. - Her, maternal relsiiye was washing; potatoes in the t&itchejn'^Ann Jane was reading "A Mother*!? " in ,the " front; room/- " Anrt Jjime, take them thinga-off the line. "Bit the girl read dreamily on. '.' JV . .'."•"•She went to her room—the-pretty little room which had been prepared for her with such lavish generosity. She threw off the dark cloak and the veil which'had so little served her purpose. The mas^ of dark shining hair fell in picturesque', disorder over her stately figure." " Awn Jane, the dust's a-spilin' them clothes." Hut even as one 'neath the influence of the narcotic in* fluence of the seductive poppy, she con* tinned. * . . . "' What am Ito do? ' Vivien' cried, with clenched hands and trembling' lips—' what am I to do ? I will die rather than yield!' V- Then she looked up and saw her mother with the copper-stick in one hand,- and the family strap in the other—and. for the'next two or three" minutes the street sounded as if forty-five giants were beating their diningroom carpets. js^rmer was invited to a party at a country esquire's one evening, when there was music both vocal and instruments. On the following morning he met one of, - the guests, who said " Well, farmer, how did you enjoy yourself last night P Were not the quartettes excellent P. "Why, really, sir, I can't say," said he; "for I didn't taste 'em. But the } pork chops were the finest I ever did eat."