MISCELLANEOUS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 290, 21 August 1873, Page 6

MISCELLANEOUS.

A Beautiful Experiment.— The following beautiful chemical experiment may be easily performer] by a lady, to the astonishment of a circle at her teaparty. Take two or three leaves of red cabbage, cut them into small bits, put them into a basin, and pour boilin^ water on them ; let it stand an hour, then pour it off into a decanter. It will be a fine blue colour. Then take four wine-glasses; into one put six drops of strong vinegar, into another six drops of solution of soda, into the third a strong solution of alum, and let the fourth remain empty. The glasses may be prepared some time before, and the few drops of colourless liquid that has been placed in them will not be noticed. Fill up the glasses from the decanter, and the liquid poured into the glass containing the acid will become red, the glass containing the soda will become a fine green, that poured into the the empty one will remain unchanged. By adding a little vinegar to the ggeen it will immediately change to red, and on adding a little soultion of soda to the red it will assume a fine green, thus showing the action of acids and alkalies on vegetable blues. A Wife's Powee.— The power of a wife, for good or evil, is irresistible. Without one, home must be for e^er unknown. A good wife is to a man wisdom, strength, and courage; a bad one is confusion, weakness, and despair. No condition is hopeless to a man where the wife possesses firmness, decision, and economy. There is no outward propriety which can counteract indolence, extrvagance, and folly at home. No spirit can long endure bad influence. Man is strong, but his heart is not adamant. He delights in enterprise, but to sustain him he needs a tranquil mind; and especially if he is an intelligent man, with a whole head, he needs his moral force in the conflict of life. To recover his composure, home must be a place of peace and comfort. Ihere his soul renews its strength and goes forth with fresh vigonr to encounter the labour and troubles of life. But if at home he finds no rest, and is there met with bad temper, sullenness, jealousy and gloom, or assailed with complaints anrl censure, hope vanishes, and he sinks into despair. Such is the case with too many who, it might seem, have no conflicts of trials of life ; for such is the wife's power. In Paris we have everything in due season — from revolutions to snails. The latter are now u in," with early peas,

asparagus, lamb, and grapes. The snail season proper does not last more than three weeks ; the univalves are gathered in the outskirts of Paris, among the vines, moist vegetation generally, and the "cemeteries." The provinces contribute to this "food supply/ and the costermongers seem to take a special pleasure in trundling their cart through streets, selling the inland oyster all alive, at the rate of six sous the dozen. One marchand had rods standing in his hand cart, up which the mollusks climed, toppling over on reaching the summit — others made the grand tour of the vehicle, stretching out their horns in a most "sympathetic"manner to the public. A dealer had divided his cart into partitions, one for gingerbread, the other for " the other delicacy of the season." The Eomans were very fond of snails, and treated them like oysters, in fattening them ; they generally were eaten at funeral feasts, the being deposited piously on tombs. At Naples, snails are converted into cheap soup ; their first cousins — slugs — are made into a pate, and sold to ease a bad cough, or boiled down in milk to " cure" consumption. — Paris Letter. A Napier exchange thus writes upon the sale of adulterated intoxicating drinks : — " We maintain that the Government is as much bound to protect the public in the matter of alcoholic drinks as it is in the weights and measures of groceries and bread; and this being granted, so long as tbe. Government neglects taking measures to ensure the retailing of harmlessly adulterated alcohol, so long is it responsible for the disastrous consequences resulting from the sale of poisonous drinks." In a recent sale by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, of Leicester Square, the right of Hatton's well-known song, "Simon the Cellerer," produced the large sum of £409, the purchaser being Mr. J. Williams, of Cheapside ; also in the same sale there occurred the fol-"^i fowing part-songs by R. L Pearsall, all of which realised high prices :—": — " O, who will o'er the Downs so free?" <£396 (Novello, Ewer, and Co.) ; "Who will win my lady fair?" £85 10a. (ditto) ; and the " Hardy Norseman," .£344 (ditto.) The State school teachers of Victoria have had forwarded to them the following circular : — The attention of the Minister of Public Instruction has been drawn to the fact that in some instances teachers have resorted to the practise of inflicting corporal punishment on girls, and I am instructed to state that he considers such a practise highly improper, and that he will not permit it in future. lam further to state that, even with boys, when in extreme cases such punishment becomes necessary, it must be inflicted by the head master only, and not until the termination of the school meeting. — H. Venebles, Secretary Education Department. Science is never at a standstill in this enlightened age, but our credulity has been slighly taxed by the announcement that a Frenchman proposes to sink a pneumatic tube under the Straits of Dover and to blow microscopic letters and despatches backward and forwards to the ultimate extinction of the oi'dinary means of postal communication. If the plan should succeed, why should we not expect to see it applied on a large scale, so that goods and passengers which it would be difficult to reduce to microscopical dimensions might be wafted through the pneumatic pipes ? In that case there would be nothing improper, apart from the weakness of the grammar, in saying to a friend who proposed to go to France, "You be blowedT To our . way of thinking, should this invention be perfected, it will prove a greater blow to the French nation than has even been dealt to them from across the Channel. What next %— v Sportsman." In the Victorian Assembly recently one member pleasantly called another "a cur," subsequently strengthening the remarks by adding the words " and a coward." To which the member attacked replied "that such language could only come out the mouth of a scavenger," whereupon member number one, fearing his name as a graduate of Billingsgate was in question, stated that he was quite able to use worse language if he pleased, and could for instance call his opponent " a disreputable scoundrel," Here a third member interposed, allegging that such language " was only fit for people outside," a remark which was received with general laughter. The "Waikato Times" says:— We some time ago called attention to the unsatisfactory position in which settlers in country districts are placed as regards medical attendance It is not that there is an insufficient number of medical men, but that very often these men are given to over indulgence in alcohol, and their existence in the district often keeps good men away. We trust that at the next sitting of the Assembly some members will introduce a bill to deal with imbibing doctors. If the master of a vessel drinks to excess he is liable to have bis certificate suspended. Lives and property are entrusted to his care ; it is therefore very proper that such should be the case. The lives of her Majesty's subjects are almost equally at the mercy of drunken doctors. We are not prepared to suggest the best means of dealing with these men, but think the power should rest with the Justices of the Peace to temporarily suspend the certificate of any medical man guilty of drunkenness whilst on duty, and that after two temporary suspensions it should be competent to bring tbe guilty party before a superior tribunal, in order to his prohibition to practice in 'the colony."