Domestic

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 11, 14 March 1907, Page 33

Domestic

*By • Maureen *^

A' Simple Way -to Steam Fish. .* ■ Try steaming fish between two plates set over - a saucepan of foiling water. The gravy that runs out of the fish % should 'be thickened and used' for - sauce. Allow three quarters of an hour to steam thick . fish • steaks by this process, and you will be delighted with the results. To Renovate a Mackintosh. _~ Sometimes a useful mackintosh is ' discarded on account of split seams that make it look unsightly. The following- preparation , neatly applied will improve the appearance of the mackintosh :- Dissolve some fine shreds of pure india rubber in naphtha or sulphide ot cartoon, to form a stiff paste. Apply a little of the cement to each edge that is to be joined, bring the edges together, and place a - weight over them till they are hard. - "i *• , The Use of Court Plaster. Court plaster should be used with care. If the injury should be very slight, it can -be used without much possibility of harm ; but if it is at all deep, like a cut, never use the plaster to cover the cut. Simply cut long, narrow strips and apply them across the cut to " bring its edges together? Then the secretions of the wound can escape, and will not mature unless dirty. Never apply court plaster to a bruised wound. Times number do we see a wound become a painful sore by being covered with court plaster. Its whole use is to bring together and hold* together the edges of a cut, or to protect an irritated but unbroken skin. ,- Ambidexterity. -. The advisability of training" both hands equally is at the .present time much discussed. It is generally believed that "the reason '.why most people are righthanded is that the convolutions of the right hemisphere of the brain are larger and have more numerous folds tha-n the left, and that, owing to the crossing^ of the bundles of conducting nerves, the left brain~controls the right side of the body and vice versa. An_ eminent physician, Dr. Catftaz, contradicts this" accepted opinion. 'Is it certain, 1 he asks, ' that the want of symmetry of the brain initiated right-handedness,, or is it not equally likely that the inequality of the brain hemispheres, far from being the initial" cause, is on the contrary, the result of the continual use ? Taking animals as examples,, we do not find this tendency 'to use one limb 1 in preference to the other. iiieir brains -are symmetrical, and there is nothing' to show 'that that of primitive man was not equally so. .He is .backed up in his opinion by the head master of Eton, who, at the Public" Schools Science Masters' Association at the University of London recently- said : 'He N believed it was a physiological fact that there was a direct connection between, the right hand and the left' lobe of the brain, and- what was more important, be- • tween the left hand and the right lobe ojL, the brain. In giving children nothing but the use of the right hand, they were not training the brain evenly, but in a one-sided and lop-sided fashion. Why did "we not insist on) amiWdexterity for children under fourteen years of age ? ' In connection with this, he said racquets and tennis were bad games, and cricket a onesided game.

We have"^ received from Messrs. Reid and Gray, •the well-known makers and importers of agricultural- implements arid machinery, Dunedin, their revised catalogue- for the current year. This firm enjoys an Australasian reputation for the excellence of their manu- . factures, r which for workmanship and material are unrivalled. JEverything' else b*e>ing equal, it- is the duty, of every colonial farmer to support a local industry, which employs at the present time 200. hands. Messrs. • Reid and Gray ' 'direct attention to -the fact that nearly all their goods are made in New Zealand, and that the prices charged are as low as is consistent with first-class material and good workmanship. The catalogue contains a great deal of information which will 'be found most useful to farmers, and if any v further ' particulars are required they will he answered on applying to the firm....