WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 72, 12 September 1874, Page 13

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

Obighk OS Fashions.— The origin of many fashions was in the •endeavor to conceal some deformity. Patches were invented in England in the reign of Edward VI. by a foreign lady, who in this manner ingeniously covered a wen on her neck. Full-bottomed wings were invented by n French barber for the purpose of concealing an elevation on the shoulder of the Dauphin. Charles VII. of France introduced long coats to hide his ill-made legs. Shoe* with long points — full two feet in length — were invented for Henry Plantagenet. Duke of Anjou, "to conceal a large excrescence on one of his feet. "When Francis I. was obliged to wear his hair short, owing to a large wound received on the head, it became a prevailing fa«hion at court.

" Sent to Coventry." — Two explanations of tho expression " Sent to Coventry," have been offered — one, that the inhabitants of Coventry were so averse to holding any communication -with the mili"tary quartered in the town, that they were confined to the interchanges of the mess room. The other is that the day after Charles I. had left Birmingham in 1642, the Parliamentarians seized all messengers and eurpected persons, and sent them prisoners to Coventry. [We have, however, heard another, and » far more likely one. During the threatened invasion of England by the Spanish Armada, persons who were suspected of cowardice were ordered to Coventry, as furthest from the enemy, it being the most central town in England. Hence its application to a person who is to be tabooed .3 The Sad Truth.— The rose of Florida, the most beautiful of flowers, emits no fragrance ; the Bird of Paradise, the most beautiful of bird?, gives no song ; the cypress of Greece, the finest of trees, yields no fruit ; dandies, the shiniest of men, have no sense • and ball-room telles, the loveliest creatures in the world, are very often ditto. Perfection exists not under the sun.

Thb Best Bed. — Of the eight pounds which a man eats and brinks in a day. it is thought that not les« than five pounds leave his lody through the skin. And of these five pounds, a considerable perceatage escapes during the night while lie is in bed. The larger part of this is water, but in addition there is much effete and poisonous matter. This, being in great part eneeous in form, permeates every part of the bed. Thus all parts of the led — mattrass, blankets, as tosll as sheets — soon become foul, and need purification. The mattrass needs this renovation quite as rruch as the sheets. To allow the eheets to be used without washing or changing three or six months, would be considered bad housekeeping ; but I insist, if a thin sheet can absorb enough of the poisonous excretions of the body to make it unfit for use in a few days, a thick mattrasn, which can absorb and retain a thousand times as much of these poisonous excretions, needß to be purified as often, certainly, as once in three months. A sheet can be washed. A mattrass cannot be renovated in this way. Indeed, there is no other way of cleansing a mattrass but by steaming it or picking it to pieces, and thus in fragments exposing it to the direct rays of the sun. As these processes are scarcely practicable with any of the ordinary mattrasses, I am decidedly of the opinion that the good old-fashioned straw bed, which can every three months be exchanged

for fresh straw and the tick washed, is the sweetest and healthiest of beds. If in tho winter season the porousness of the straw bed makes it feel uncomfortable, spread over it a comforter, or two woollen - blankets, which should be washed as often as every two weeks. Witli this arrangement, if you wash all fche bed covering as. often as once in two weeks, you will have a delightful healthy bed. Now, if you leave the bed to air, with open windows during the day, and not make it up* for the night before evening, you will have added greatly to the sweetness of your rest, and, in consequence, to the tone of your health. T heartily wish this good change could be everywhere introduced. Only those who have attended to this important matter can judge of its influence on the general health and spirits. Shobs. — The early Britons wore coarse bags of hide, made all of one piece, and tied round the ankle, but the Romans introduced daintier foot-gear, and from them the Anglo-Saxon learned to make both boots and shoes of leather, both being generally of one piece laced from the toes all the way up with strings, and sometimes pro* tected at the sole with a sort of wooden clog. A pair of shoes worn by Bernard King of Italy, and grandson of Charlemagne, were recently found in his tomb. " The soles were wood, and the upper parts of red leather," says an Italian writer. " They were so closely fitted to the fept that the order of the toes, terminating in a point at the great too, might easily bo discovered." Finer, neater, and greater ornamentation came to he employed in latter times. Some one with a deformed foot it said to have first had shoes pinched at the toe, and the innovation was so much admired that, in spite of the denunciation of monks and priests, it was widely followed by courtiers and gallants of the Middle iges. There were scorpion-tail shoes and ram's-hora shoes ; the long curly points being stuffed with tow as well as of toe. Shoe-toes became more natural, but high heels, then called chopine« were introduced in Elizabeth's reign. This fashion also came from Italy, and Coryate reports thai in his time the chopine wus so commonthat no one could go without it. The changes of fashion in shoes and boots during the last two or three centuries may be traced in familiar paintings, such as Hogarth's.

How Hot Ibox May be Handled. — About the year 1809, on© Lionelte, a Spaniard, astonished not only the ignorant, but chemist* and other men of science, by the impunity with which he handled red-hot iron and molten lead, drank boiling oil, and performed other feats equally miraculous. While he was at Naples he attracted the attention of Professor Sementem., who narrowly watched all his operations and endeavored to discover his secret. Sementem's efforts, afterperforming several experiments upon himself, were finally crowned with success. Ha found that by friction with sulphuric acid, diluted with water, the skin might be made insensible to the action of the> heat of red-hot iron ; a solution of alum, evaporated until it became spongy, appeared to be sHll more effectual. After having rubbed the parts which were rendered, in some degrev, incombustible with hard soap, he discovered on the application of hot iron that their insensibility was increased. He then determined on again rubbing the parts with soap, and after this found that the hot iron not only occasioned no pain, but that it actually did not burn the hair. Baing thus far satisfied, the professor auplied hard soap to his tongue until it became) insensible to the heat of the iron ; and having placed an ointment composed of soap mixed with a solution of alum upon it, boiling oil did not burn it. While the oil remained on the tongue a slight hissing was heard, similar to that of hot iron when thrust into water ; the oil soon cooled, and was then swallowed without danger. Several scientific men have since successfully repeated the experiment of Professor Semen tern.

An HrsioßiCAi. Thee. — Afc the corner of the Place de l'H6fcel-de-Yille and the Q.ual de Q-reve, Paris, in a garden attached to Baron Kausßman's old residence, stands a weeping willow. A slip from the famous tree over the Emperor Napoleon's tomb in St. Helena; it was brought to Europe by Doctor Comsart. The cutting struck root, and was planted over a basin constructed expressly, and had a very picturesque appearance. At the time the municipal palace was burned down by the Commune, this tree, by some miracle, escaped thu ilanies, and is now as flourishing as ever. In order to preserve it from injury daring the rebuilding of the Hdfcei-de-Vi'le, M. Alpband is about to have it removed to Passy, to the garden of the Muette, until it can ba replaced with safety. Inslceiccb of Food. — An sxcellent hint is given in the following item : Dr Hall relates tbe case of a man who was cured of his billiousness by going without his supper and drinking freely of lemonade. Every morning, eayß the doctor, this patient arose with a wonderful sense of refreshment, and feeling as though the blood had been literally washed, cleansed and cooled by the lemonade and fast. His theory is that food can be used as a remedy for many diseases successfully. As an example, be cures spitting of blood by the use of salt ; epilepsy, by watermelon ; kidney affections, by celery ; poison, by olive or sweefc oil; eiysipelas, by pounded cranberries applied to the part affected ; hydrophobia, by onions ; etc. So the way to keep in good health is really to know what to eat. Danger o* "Wet CiiOTHES.~A person immersed for half an hour in the cold water of a hath tub, would not be chilled as much at if water were continually thrown on him for that length of time. Evaporation from tbe surface would tarry off heat faster than it could be diffused through the water in the tub. In the latter case, if the person lay perfectly still, the water immediately around him would become, to a certain extent, warmed. In' the former case, as water in. a state of vapor contains nine or ten times as much heat as when liquid,, every pound of water evaporated on the surface carries from the body heat enough to raise a gallon of ice-cold water to the boiling point. It is plain from this how dangerous it is for people to Bit in web clothes. As, however, woollen is a bad conductor of heat, as compared with cotton, ». c., does not allow the heat'to pass through it so rapidly, it is much safer to sit in wet woollen clothes than in wet cotton.

Cremation is prospering in Oerniany. There are now 82 cities with cremation societies.