FROM THE MAGAZINES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 303, 20 December 1913, Page 14

FROM THE MAGAZINES.

THB TCISE SAINT.

De debble see -St. Peter sneak Into heaben'a gate; * He holler: "What's yo' hurry? Walt dar Peter! Walt!" "'

De saint pnll In de latch-string, an' holler"How, you go! I'll 6lc de houn' -lawg on you de ftistMt t'lng you know."

"I Epeaks yon like a ge'man," d a debhU < up an' say, "Ann yere you ahets mc out, sah! F« shame! to ock dat way!"

"Don' argifj-," say Peter. "Ton leada ta_ Into sin. — Ain't shettln" you out, nohow; I'g aheMa' mahse'f la." —Herman da Costa, Il the "Century." THE CUNNING OF THE FOX. Perhaps the smartest thing I ever saw done by a fox was with the Pytchley. I was watching hounds on foot, and wit nessed the following incident. A fox found (if I remember rightly) in the' Hemplow, went away over Crick Canal (by a bridge). Standing on the hank of the canal, I saw the "gone away." Hounds and horsemen went away "full cry" and very fast, but long before the last of the crowd of horsemen was across the bridge, a ripple in the still waters of tho canal caught my eye. There waa tha fox quietly swimming back again, having doubled on his tricks! Hounds flashed on, and in true Midland style were cast on and on. In dne course they picked up another fox.-— Lionel Edwards, in "Country Life."

ARE (MICROBES . BYER HELPFUL!.

In a recent issue of "Le Journal," Professor Eugene Wollmann, of the Institut Pasteur, published an -interesting article on microbes. He say-B that besides dangerous microbes there aTe others to whom we should be really thankful, and whom human beings have used without knowing dt in the preparation of certain foods and liquids. This, of course, was originally discovered by Pasteur, who was, however, indebted in some degree to the findings of a Dutch scientist, one Leeuwenhoek, wbo lived 200 years ago. Everybody has a number of miordbes who live inside him, and Professor Wollmann raises the question, raised but unsolved by Pasteur: Would -it he better -to live without internal microbes? Professor Wollmann concludes, from thereiiult of his own experiments and those of his colleagues, that internal microbes do not add in any appreciable manner with the process of digestion, whereas* as Professor Metchnikoff has already pointed out, even "normal" internal microbes may produce a poisonous effect in the human system. CURATE AND MISER. In an article in the "Art Journal," Mr. 11. M. Pemberton writes of Morgan Jones, a Welshman, and a miser; who was once curate-in-oharge at Blewbury. Ho died worth fifty thousand pounds, and some curious stories are given of his economy. It is said that he wrote his 6ermons on pieces of paper torn from -the walls, and. was obliged to Mb in bed whilst his one skirt was ?»'._<; washed. On one occasion, when walking in the fields, he caw an old scarecrow haying a hat, the brim of which was sound. Jones seized the hat, aid, taking off the one ii<j was wearing, replaced it by that of the scarecrow. His tout, of many tatters, is still in existence and is kept in remembrance by photographs, whidh are sold in the neighbourhood. THE PRESS. ( The English Press etill plays a considerable part in the daily life of the average man or woman. No day is considered complete, some portion of which is not devoted to a perusal of tha newspaper. The newspaper, indeed, forme the sole intellectual pabulum of "vast numbers of readers. It is the poor man's encyclopaedia. There is no phase of life which the newspaper leaves untouched. It panders to the lowest instincts of a sensation-loving public, it soars into the high regions of divinity and philosophy, it discourses learnedly about science and art and literature, it gives Tacing "tips," it is a momentary microcosm of the world. We accept the Press as a mysterious power that works (quite literally) in the night. Of that vast army of labour without which no newspaper could ever be delivered at our front dbor—that army of editors, subeditors, news editors, reporters, re« viewers, compositors, leaders distributors, and a hundred others —we have no conception.—The "New Witness." ABOUT EYES. M. Boucheny de GTandval, a French writer, has published a study of the appearance of inscriptions on the iris of the eye. The "Cologne Gazette" gives the following extracts: — Dr. Borelli produced, on the evidence of a physician of Montpellier named Formius, the case of a young man who had on the iris of h-is left'eye an inscription in very legible Roman character*: "Love soit Dieu" (God be praised!). Another case is that of Josephine Louie. This young girl was bora in Paris iu--1825. As sihe came of poor -parents, they accepted the offer of a showtman, and Jet her be exhibited as a. CfT^iWvv 1 ,. ■ France, afterwards in Ghent, and finally in England. On the iris of one eye was to be seen the word "Napoleon," on the other "Emperor." Well-known doctors, Rogucttu, Gdraldes, Cornaz, ani Wilde exam-in-ed the girl, and the lastnamed reported -as follows: —"A It* yeans ago I -heard of a child on the retina of whose eye the words Tfapffleon Em'pereur' were written. This phenomenon might have been caused by an unusual arrangement of the cavities, fibrito, and streaks which are cha-racteristio elements of the surface of the eye. I possess," added the writer, who wafl M bhe time a physician in Dublin, "very good engraving of Josephine Louis' lace. On the lower half of the right iris are marks which resemble the letters forming the -word 'empereur,' and the word 'Napoleon' occupies just about the same position on the left retina." In the eighteenth century the celebrated eye specialist Jacques Daniel had informed scientific circles that in the eye of -a .peasant woman living in the neighbourhood of Rouen he had detected -marks which resembled the Latin words "Post Mortem." Finally, Dr. Tenon, whom ono Dne would think of charging with a desire to mystify tbe credulous, writes concerning a case which 6igulariy resembles that of Josephine Louis: "On the blue retina are to be seen white stars, 6ome having the shape of numerals, while another might be described st having a Tesemblanoc to a capital TIt should be added that Tenon had* copy of this remarkable eye made a enamel.