THROUGH OUR EXCHANGES.

Bruce Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 1933, 17 February 1888, Page 3

THROUGH OUR EXCHANGES.

It is an undoubted fact that Indian and Ceylon teas are rapidly driving Chinese teas out of the English market. The superior quality of the Indian and Cingalese varieties is due to the superior methods of preparation. The Chinese grower pursues the same plans he has pursued for centuries ; small farmers grow the leaf and wait for the itinerant purchasers, who keep it till they have eDough to dry ; in the meantime the quality deteriorates. In India the plantations are of great extent and have a large capital invested in them; the latest machinery and methods of preparation are in use, and adulteration is unknown. The marriage of an American or an Englishman with a Japanese woman ia a rare occurrence. One of the secretaries of the American Legation has married a Japanese girl of noble blood, while her sister has been led to the altar by another attache of the Legation. A terrible epidemic of measles has broken out in Cape Clear, a desolate island off the south coast of Ireland. A similar epidemic occurred there six years ago, and nearly decimated the place. The mortality is high, and in many instances entire families have died. The schools are being converted into a temporary hospital, and medical assistance is being sent to the place. Mr Fletcher, of ihe New South Wales Assembly, can give points to Sir Julius Yogel and Mr Seddon rolled together when it conies to the graphic description of an adversary. Refeiring to the Pavkes Ministry he declared that "If you were to rake hell with a fine tooth comb you would not find such a lot there." This should make the editors of " Liberal " papers in New Zealand green with envy. In connection, with the census of the unemployed in London, it is stated that nearly 10,000 persons had registered their name?, and with the families depending on them, there were probably 20,000 others in want of work, making a total ascertained of between 28,000 and 30,000 men, women, and children without employment, and without the means of getting any. At the present moment, when the health of the nonagenarian Emperor of Germany is a matter of keen anxiety, it may be interesting te peruse a list, recently published by a German newspaper, of seventy-five of his crowned contemporaries whom he has already survived. This list (says the ' St. James' Gazette ') comprises fifty- five Kings or Queens, eight Emperors, six Sultans, and six Popes ; to say nothing of twentyone Presidents of the United States. The crowned heads are as follows :— Three Kings of Prussia, two Kings of Hanover, two Kings of Wurtemberg, four Kings of Bavaria, three Kings of Saxony, one Kiag of Saxony, one King of Westphalia (Jerome Bonaparte) one King of the Belgians, three Kings of Holland, three Kings of England, two Emperors and three Kings of Sweden, four Kings of Denmark, four Sovereigns of Portugal, five Sovereigns of Spain, five Kings of Sardinia, six Kings of Naples, two Emperors of Austria, four Czars of Rurria, six Popes, six Sultans of Turkey. To these may be added one King of Italy, one Emperor of Brazil, one Emperor of Mexico, making a grand total of seventyeight. Apropos of sugar and the false notions respecting it, we may be permitted to remark, for the young folk's sake, another very false notion respect-* ing sugar. It is the widespread notion that sugar destroys the teeth. That is not true. At least, it is not more true than it is of any other hard substance, the grinding and breaking of which will ultimately rub down the hardest tusks. The surface of a tooth consists of the hardest substance in the body ; that is enamel, which is so dense and hard that it will strike fire with steel. Chemically, sugar does not act upon the enamel ; and Mechanically ifr bas not half the effect of other harder and tougher substances that are eaten. So that there is no foundation whatever for the opinion that sugar is injurious to the teeth. Confectioners' teeth are, on the average, as good as other folk's ; and the negroes, with whom sugar is a staple food, descend to the grave with teeth of enviable whiteness and undiminished strength.