Extracts from Our Paris Letter.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4637, 14 November 1883, Page 2

Extracts from Our Paris Letter.

A French scientist draws attention to a work that he published in 1877. He there propounded that the world, the dry land, emerged originally from out of the deep ; that it was submerged in the time of Noah, and is destined to return to the place from whence it came. He denounces De Lesseps as being not. the benefactor, but the destroyer of mankind by cutting big ditches through Suez and Panama, he but hastens the crack q* doom. Man .ought not to put asunder what God bad joined. Respecting Noah Monsieur le Pelletier supplies us. with something like the latest particulars of that patriarch and his boat, he says it was built of cypress, cedar or box, which signifies gopher wood. Its capacity was equal to 40 ships, of 1000 tons each; it had three stories, the first for animals, the second for provisions, and the third for birds and Noah's family. The win« dows were composed of transparent stones common to Mesopotamia. The first story was divided into two rows, each of 150 stalls, with a separating alley. A part of tbe ark was reserved for fresh water, that of the flood being undrinkable. Strays, a Dutchman, in 1670, took seven days, travelling 15 miles daily, to reach the summit of Mount Ararat. Arrived there, he encountered an old hermit, who assured him there was neither heat, cold, wind nor rain in the vicinity, that which accounted for the preservation of the ark, % portion of which he gave him in the form of a cross. '.'''■■

A French author proposes to people his country's colonies with Chinese, since the mother country contributes no emigrants. Algeria wants hands. According to the Petite France, owned by M. Grevy's son-in-law, this colony is but the refuge for allthe black sheep of the Home Country^ and only officials bear the hall mark. Dr Lagneau estimates that there is one million of foreign residents—immigrants —in France; the Belgians number 375,000, and the English and Americans twelve times less. In 1851 there were only 379,000 foreigners. In 1870-71 the number was exceptionally augmented. The English total is now one less since the departure of M. Heine. He came to do Paris; an hour after his arrival he went out for a stroll, and for several days had disappeared. His wanderings were as full of adventures as those of Ulysses. He was ultimately found locked up in a public lunatic asylum—the place ap« pareritly where all non-French speaking visitors found wandering are sent to. And the unfortunate man was only released on the assurance being given he would be "cured" while in Paris.; The cruelty would have been avoided had the Prefecture de Police any clerk able to speak English. Moses and Co, keep a poet; the Police Ministry ought to have a polyglot man of all work. In the pre« sent temper of the French they will hardly vote a salary for an English speaking clerk. Curiously enough it is easier to discover a lost umbrella or a missing poodle in Paris than a disappeared mem* ber of humanity. By acurious coincidence M. Heine had no other papers on him than a pamphlet biography of Payne, the author of " Home Sweet Home." :

The sole direct descendant of jfit. Vincent de Paul isla policeman residin^fat Beaulieu, in the department of the Oise. Professor Keflelman says boiled is as digestible as unboiled milk, and boiling kills many dangerous animalcules. Water facilitates the digestion also of milk—a fact dairymen discovered before scientist!. Cognac also does the same.