MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 248, 11 December 1873, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

We hare an example of the wjj in whirl) nflir long walcfulncss, accompanied by much plij&ic&l excitvon, sleep will overpower even a strong man, iq the following quotations from Mr MacGregor's " Vojago Alone m the Yawl, Rob Jio;/." He gives this account of lits arrival it Dover, after a perilous \oynge across tlie channel from Havre :—": — " I went up to the Lord Warden Hotel, meaning to write home, dine, and go to bed, after fiftj-three hours without sleep; but while waiting for the sen ant to bring hot water, and with my jacket oil', I tumbled oa to the bed for a moment. Then it *as three o' flock p.m. ; soon, n« it, teemed, awake again, I saw it was still light, and bright »im shining ; also my watch had run down, the water jug was cold, and it was » puzzle to make out how I felt so wonderfully fresh. Why, it was next day, and I had soundly slept for seventeen hours." Cases to illustrate the fact that excitement is not sufficient to insure wakefulness aro not perhaps so familiar or so obvious. There arc, however, instances on record of sulors having fallen asleep during the height of an engagement, and white the roar of the canon was sounding in their ears, fairly overcome by the exhaustions of their nenrons systems, in consequence of the protracted exertions to which they had been exposed. We all know, too, by experience, that reading or preaching, which may be sufficiently stimulating or exciting in itself, fails to keep us awake if our powers of endurance are exhausted. Who has not, under such circumstances, made the most virtuous resolves and the most determined efforts ? and yet he has found to hi» annoy•liice, and perhaps to his shame, that sleep got the mastery over him. But it 11 not only that excitement fails to keep us awako when nature demands repose, but even the call of and a keen sense of self-interest cannot do it. Thus, it has oiten been noticed that soldiers have fallen asleep wbileon the march — not in isolated instances — a young recruit here, or a sickly man there, but a large proportion of the men forming a company. This is more particularly apt to occur in hot climates during night marches. Many Indian officers have attested the fact. So well recognised, indeed, is it, that military manuals recommend that the band, should play during the night in order to keep the men awake. In the memoir of the celebrated Major Hodson, of " Hodson's Horse," we find the following account from the pen of a brother officer : — " The way Hodson used to work "was quite miraculous. He was a slighter man and lighter weight than I am. Then he had that most valuable gift of being able to get refreshing sleep on horseback. I have been out with him all night following and watching the enemy, when he has gone off dead asleep, waking up after an hour as fresh as a lark ; vi hereas if I went asleep in the saddle, the odds were I fell off on my nose." It may not seom so wonderful that men should sleep in the saddle. Those vrbo aro accustomed to riding may sleep in it almost os easily as other men do in a chair ; and the horse is an animal of such sagacity that the rider may well feel confident in relying upon Ims guidance. But that men should fall asleep while on the march, while the arm is shouldering a musket, and the. ]e»s are moA nig in regular step, does seem very strar ge. Such parts of the system as can iind repose insist, as it were> upon tiking it, while those which cannot be spared are obliged to continue at work. In a similar way childrenemployed in factories have been known to fall asleep while tending certain pieces of machinery, and doing what was necessary to keep them in motion. These and other milder examples of the same class —as, for instance, when a person, falls asleep standing at a dcsk — are approaches to what we see normally among many animals — namely, that some part is in actne exercise during sleep. Thus many quadrupeds sleep standing. It is evident, therefore, that their muscles are altogether not relaxed j those which maintain the body in position are in a state of tension. The same is true of most birds. They sleep grasping a branch, and balancing their bodies on ono leg. E^ery child notices with interest the way in which his canary or bullfinch goes to roost. Well, during that sleep some of its muscles are in constant activity. It is a commonplace to hear it said that any English , labourer's son may be Premier, Primate, or Chancellor. Yes, and he may go and take rooms at the Clarendon, and " eat turtle-soup with a gold spoon," if lie has the money. As a fact, how many persons have actually risen from the ranks of the unmoneyd classes to high position within living memory? In truth, our whole society isgradually being reconstructed as a plutocracy, and its one scriptural maxim is, " Whosoever hath, to him shall be given ; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken, even that which he seemeth to have." Under the French monarchy as remodelled by Kichelieu, no man not of noble descent could rise to higher than subaltern rank in. the army. The first removal of thii bar saw such names as Dumouriezi Kieber, Hoche, Kellermann, Key, Soult, Massena, Maimont, Lannes, and Davoust, come to the front. With us, no such technical obstacle is opposed, but th« few non-commissioned officers who are given the option of rising usually decline promotion, because they are not allowed to feel at ease with their former superiors, and their advance is regarded with jealousy and distrust by the rank and file. It is most truly said that it is good for the tone and discipline of an army that it should be officered by gentlemen ; but by complaint is that the wholeifmy is not what it might be, a school of manners, bo that a man could not become a sergeant without also becoming a gentleman in manners and thoughts during the process. So too the literate clergyman is marked off in most cases by a very definitebarrier from the University-bred man. He is .practically doomed never to rise beyond Borne small incumbency, because he lacks the Bocial tact reasonably desired in a church dignitary, whose position makes him a link of union between the highest and lowest orders of society. An uncultured clergyman, whatever his piety and zeal, is not acceptable either to the rich or the poor of his flock, for both like a gentleman. But the modern literate parson-factories aim only at teaching particular Shibboleths, and do nothing to inculcate social tact and refinement, to say nothing of higher culture. They do not so much as try to make silk purses out of the bristly raw material at their disposal. I have spoken so far of the difficulty of rising. But to my mind that is the very smallest part of the evil which I deplore. What I desire to see is that people, without leaving the social grade in which they move, without ceasing to be artizans, farm-labourers, shopmen ,. whatnot, shall nevertheless bo ladies and gentlemen in all essentials of culture. It is a good thing that men shall be readily able to rise from one class to another, and the stimulus of hope and emulation may do its work in quickening society, but it is an unspeakably better thing to give a dead-lift to & whole class. Now it is plain enough as an economic /act that no great addition to the wage-fund can ever be looked for. In all ages that fund has been no more than a. fraction over the sum necessary to support the labourer and his family, A large rise in wages now means only that money is a cheaper article of commerce, and that its purchasing power is lowered, so that the actual' condition of the labourer is much where it was and always has been. And; where the rise has been so exceptional as to make a great difference in the purchasing powers of the members of a. particular trade, the mode of expenditure adopted has not been encouraging to optimists. Consequently, I think that those statists who look to a redistribution of labour and a change in the direction of capital as the means of giving this dead-lift, must needs be disappointed. There are a great many things money cannot do, and this is one of them. But money can make the dead-lift a great deal more difficult to effect, and it is actually doing so. — Contemporary Review. There is ever something dread and unearthly about the average washerwoman. The diabolical glee with which she wrenches off buttons and washes your garments into rags, the hauteur with which she receives your remonstrances, and the severe and heartless animosity and regularity with whioh she deaiands pay for her services, all conspire to make her au object of terrified respect. It is so seldom that she it conquered by a delinquent debtor that we hasten to note tha cate of the fortunate Greg of Toledo. Mr Greigs washerwoman, in spite of a remorseless mind and repeated applirations, failed to secure the sum, $19.62 c, wherein ho wai indebted to her. With a persistent energy which would have struck horror to most men's souls sho summoned him before a magistrate to show cause why he ihould not pay. The iron-hearted Greg appeared, placidly acknowledged the correctness of the bill, and triumphantly presented as an offset one of his own : To damage done to his feelings in compelling her daughter to break off her engagement with him, $19.62 c. The surprised washerwoman could not deny this, and the case was immediately decided in favour of Mr Greg. That a decision could, by any possibility, be given against a washerwoman will enst a gleam of hope into the hearts of many hopeless single gentlemen, but to marry that functionary's daughter in order to get their garments renointed without money nnd without price, is an economical idea which will probably occur to but few. — JV. I. Tribune. A royal warrant, dated the 12th of August, directs that the paj of officers appointed sinco the Ist of January, 1873, or \> ho may hereafter be appointed to be colonels of regiments of cavalry of the line, shall (provided they have re« eeived, or may hereafter receive, the difference which formerly existed between the value of cavalry and infantry commissions, or have no difference to receiro between the value of those commissions) be at the rate of £1,000 yearly. Another royal warrant orders the compulsory retirement of staff officers of pensioner? over sixty years of age, and if the officer has been not lew than twenty years a staff officer of pensioners, and has an aggregate service of thirty-five years, he is to retire upon full pay as major, viz., 16s per day. A " Lady Correspondent " of the Belfast News-letter 6ays that about 8,000 begging-letters were received by the Shah during Ins rr cent visit to England. They have been packed in a large chest, and sent off fo Persia, where hit Majesty means to deposit them in a museum. He was greatly flattered by having so mnny lrtten addressed to him, taking thorn as so many compliments. The Wellington coriespondrnt of the Otago Daily Times imparts the following refreshing information :—": — " Another funny thing about the Indepeiuletit is that, latterly, two or three columns a week have been devoted to the advocacy of tcetotnhsin. The secret X that Mr Fox, acting on behalf of the United Kingdom Alliance, has arranged with the proprietor to be allowed the use of fevcral columns per wee* for llir Sinn of £50 per aunu.m r "

An account of another sensitive flame, having its origin apparently in the peculiarity of shape of a new gas-burner, is communicated bv Mr J. Warner, PCS., to the Chemical 3>«w, in a note m « huh h,- wivs :-" As Wallace's burner may not be universally known, I append a brief note of its construction. It consists of a hemispherical chamber, into which the gas is introduced through a cone fixed horizontally nt a tangent, the position of the jet wit'i teg ird to the cone being so adjusted that tno quantity of air injected In the velocity of the gas at oil ordinary pressures is alwa\>> the proportion required for Us perfect" combustion The upper part of the interior of the chamber is lined wit h were gauz-e, and from it issue one or more tubes, at which the gas is burned. The burner which I havo used had only ono tute. At ordinary pressures the flame ia of the colour of a Bunsen burner, but with a central cone, clearly defined, of pure green, whether it be turned high or low. But if the gas be reduced below the ordinary pleasure on the main, the flame becomes whitetipped, and there is no longer perfect combustion, as in a defective Bunsen. We then find that tho flame is sensitive \Tfoound, to all sound in fact, but to high notes particularly. M^isidcr this a curious fact, as I believe it has been generally supposed that a high pressure is necessary to produce such a flame. The first effect of the sound is to elevato the flame several inches, after which, if the sound be prolonged, it sinks down, producing the same perfect combustions as at ordinary pressures, and this continues as long ns tho sound. It would appear, therefore, that the gas at a very low velocity does not carry with it sufficient air, and that the^eileet of the sonorous vibration continues; so that by sound, by the rattling of a bunch of keys at a distance, we can bring the^JAfrom a state of ' imperfect, 1 to ono of ' perfect, 1 comOT^Pl. Of course the burner is small, burning only about 1 Yot two cubic feet per hour ; but I have a larger one in course of manufacture, which I expect will be minutely more sensitive." A novel, very interesting, and useful application of chloroform has just been made, says the Lancet, by Dr Square}, of the Soho Hospital. A lady has been subjected to an operation under chloroform on Tuesday last. The husband of the patient wished to move as soon as possible to her home at Norwood, but in her then condition of pain and exhaustion a journey was out of the question. The advisibihty of her return being strongly urged by her friends, it was proposed to perform the journey under chloroform, and this was actually performed on the 13th inst. The patient was anaesthetised on her bed in George-street, Hanover-square, having no knowledge of her impending journey. She was then carried downstairs and placed in an invalid carriage, driven to her home at Norwood, and taken out and carried upstairs to her o*n bed without at any time actually recognising that she was on her way home. Tho journey occupied an hour and a half, and the patient was under chloroform about two hours. The Secretaries of Agricultural Clubs and Societies would do well to follow a practice adopted in France, where the Secretary reads nt each meeting, not only a review of home agriculture, but a summary of all the important events in foreign rural periodicals. M. de Behague is, perhaps, the very first letter in the first lino of French agriculturists. His estate at Dampierre is a kind of Mecca. Since 182G he has converted a wilderness and a swamp into an oasis, introduced improved systems of culture, and all means for increasing the produce of the soil subordinate to pay ing ends. He hns made a princely fortune ; he has built a little village for his labourers — fifty families — and has been equally successful in improving the social condition of his neighbourhood, and in reclaiming the soil, in planting trees, in keeping his accounts correctly and simply. Mr Stewarts self-acting preserver-valve, for the protection of life and property from fire, is so constructed with fusible metal, that when fixed in ceilings, or elscwhero the heat of j an incipient fire melts the fusible metal, and opens the valves, so that streams of water pour out upon the fire to quench it, ■while the action of the water sets alarum-bells in motion. The objpet is the protection of buildings of every description, as well as ships. At a sale by auction at Dresden recently was sold the famous violin which Count Trautsmnnsdorfl 1 , Grand Squire of Charles VI., bought from Jacob Stainer under peculiar conditions. The Count paid Stainer 66 gold cacola* casli for the instrument, and engaged to givo him a good dinner for life, besides 100 florins a month, a new coat per annum, two barrels of beer, and the material for light and heat. Further, in case of Stainer's marriage, he Iwas to receive as many hares as he required, and twelve baskets of fuit. Hi* old nurse was to receive the same quantity. As the vendor lived sixteen years, his -violin cost the Count 20,000 florins. It was sold recently for 25,000 thalers. The brain of a horse seems to entertain but ono thought at a time ; for this reason continued whipping is out of the question, and only confirms his stubborn resolve. But if you can by any means change the direction of his mind, giving him a new subject to think of, nine times out of ten you will have no further trouble in starting him. As a simple trick, a htle pepper, aloes, or the like thrown back on his tongue will often succeed in turning attention to the taste in his mouth. In struggling tosanako a dull-brained boy understand what conscience is, a teacher finally asked, " What makes you feel uncomfortable after you have done wrong ? " " Father's big' e 4(jher strap," feelingly replied tho boy. Tu\*?bwiff News states that the "very latest" report respecting the fate of Arthur Orton is to the effect that Dr Kenealy has in reservo four aborigines who will swear that they ate Arthur Orton the day after the claimant sailed for England." From a late official return respecting the circulation of newspapers the total number of morning and evening papers circulated in London amounts daily to 569,000. Of this astounding number the Daily Telegraph contributes 170,000, the Standard 140,000, Daily Neios 90,000, the Echo 80,000 nnd the Times 70,000. '