MISCELLANEOUS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1437, 20 September 1861, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS.

"Light" in the Sea — A paper on the Nature of the Deep Sea Bed, by Dr. Wallich, was lead at a receut meeting of theEoyal Institution of Great Butain. The following passage occured m it : " Light, or rather the absence of it, can haidly be iaid to deteimine, in any important degree, the distubution and limitation of the lower forms of animal life. Light is not essential even in the case oE some of the higher outers. A laige class of cieatures, both terrestrial and marine, possess no ti ue organs ofjvision, although theieisgoodieasoufoi believing that they do possess some special sensoiy apparatus, susceptible to the influence of light ; whilst certain cieatures, whose habitation is m subteuannean caves or lakes, as in the Magdelena caves, near Adelsburg, and the Great Mammoth caves in Kentucky, either possess no organs of vision, or possess them in so rudimentary a state, as to prove cleaily that the absence or imperfect development of this sense may be compensated for by the higher development of othei senses It ib quite impossible at present to say to what depth light penetiates m the sea. The photogiaphic ait will, no doubt, one day solve the pioblem. But it is almost certain that a limit is attained, and that, moreovei, long befoie the deep lecesses guaged by the sounding machine are teached, whore the light giving poitiou of the lay caunot peneuate even in the mot attenuated condition ; ami yet, as shall huieafuU' be shown, cieatures have been found down in those piofoundand daik abysses whose colouring is as delicate and varied as if they had passed their existence under the bright influence of a summer sun !" jO*

Dutch Tulip Mania of 1634.— The Dutch, are thought to be a heavy, unimaginative people ; yet they are capable of indulging in elegant tastes, no matter liow costly. An excessive love of floweisis. peculiar to them, rare bulbs being as precious aa money-bags, There was a tulip mania among the Mynheers m 1C34 The choicer flowers brought far more than their weight in gold " Bargains were ef« fected for the delivery of certain roots, and when, as on one occasion, there were but two in the market, lordship and land, horsed and oxen, were sold to j>ay the deficiency. Contracts weie made, and thousands of flonns paid for tulips which where never been by bioker, buyer, or seller. Pool persons giew rich, all tanks traded in flower-*, oidinary pioperty was converted into money at 1 uiuous prices ; the tulip pas&ion i was expected to last for evei " 2,sooflonnswerepaid foi a smgle root, 2,000 was not uncommon; a new carnage with a pan of gi eys went for one bulb, twelve acies of laud foi another, a piofit of 00,000 flonns was made by a successful flonst in a few week.'? Plus tulip mania visited both London and Pans ; of comse it wore out in a short tune, but its ruinous effects weio felt for several yeais — City Press.

Tiie Kino and Couiu OF the Fan Tribes. — Presently I was conducted to ray house. The village wag a now one, and consisted mostly of asmgle-stieet about 800 yards long, on which weie built the house 0 . The latter weie small, being only eight or ten feet long, five or six feet wide, and four or five in height, with slanting roofs They were made of bark, and the loofs wt.lo of a kind of matting, made of the leaves of a }>ami-tiee. The doors inn up to the eaves, about four feet high, and theie were no windows In these houses they cook, eat, sleep, and keep their store of piovisions, the chief of which is the smoked game and smoked human flesh, hung up to the rafters All the Fan villages aie strongly fenced or pahsadoed, and by night they keep a careful watch. They have alio a little native dog, whose sharp bark is the signal of some one approaching fiom without. In the villages they aie neat and clean, the stieet being swept, and all gaibage — except, indeed, the well-picked bones of then- human subjects — is thiown out After visiting the house assigned me, I was taken through the town, where I saw moie dreadful signs of cannibalism m piles of human bones, mixed up with other offal, thiown at the sides of seveial houses. I find that the men, though viewing me with great curiosity, aie not any longer afiaid of mo, and even the women stand while I approach them They aie a moie manly and courageous lace than the tubes towards the coast. — Dv Chailhi's Eqiiatonal Africa.

The PmsiooNom or the Ho jeans.— Though I make the leraark with the fear of the artist woild befoie my eyes, I should haictly say myself that the Romans of the present day weie a very handsome race : and of their own type they are ceitamly inferior both to Tuscans and Neapolitans. The men are well formed and of good height, but not powerful in build or make, and their features aie rathei maiked than legular. As for the women, when you have once perceived that hair may be as black as coal and yet coaise as string, that bright sparkling eyes may be utterly devoid of expres« sion, and that an olive complexion may be deepened by the absence of washing, you may grow somewhat sceptical as to the reality of then vaunted beauty. All this, however, is a matter ot personal taste, about which it is useless to express, a decided opinion. I must content myself with the remaik that the Roman peasantry, as depicted year after year on the walls of our Academy, bear about the same lesemblance to the article provided for home consumption as the ladies in an ordinary London ball-room bear to the poitraits in the " Book of Beauty " The peasants' costumes, too, like the smock-fiocks andscailet cloaks of Old England, are dying out fast. On the steps in the " Piazza di Spagna," and m the artists' quarteis above, you see some score or so of models with the braided boddices, and the headdresses, of folded linen, staudmg about for hue. The braid, it is true, is torn ; the snow-white linen dut-be-sineaied, and the bugand looks feeble and offensive, while the hoary patriarch plays at pitch and toss, but still they aie the same figuies that we know so well — the tiaditional Roman peasantiy of the " Gieeian" and the " Old Adelphi." Unfoitunately, they are the last of the Romans In other paits of the city the peasant's diesses aie few and far between ; the costume has become so uncomuion as to be now a fashionable diess for the Roman ladies at Carnival time and other holiday festivals On Sundays and " Festas," in the mountain districts, you can still find real peasants with real peasants' diesses , but even there Manchester stuffs and cottons aie making their way fast, and eveiy year the old-fashioned costumes grow larei and raier. — Rome in 1860. By Edwaid Dicey.

Dandol v, the lonian Patriot — The Globe says : — When Mr. Gladstone touched on the somewhat damaging contrast between Mr Macguire's lonian and Italian politics, he might, had it been woith while, have diawn a Plutarchian pawllel betu oen the double minded (we do not wish to say double tongued) patnot of Dini« tjarvan, and a peisonage who assumes to hini&elf the 10k of leadei of the radical paity (such as it is) m Corfu. This is a ceitam Signoi Dandola, and it would seem fiom the following account given of him in a pamphlet pinned at Corfu, entitled " What is to be done with C'oifu and its Dependencies," the lonian Macguue furnishes a fitting parallel foi the lush Dandola — "bignoi Dandola is not a model of political consistency In Coifu he is a patriot of the fiist water. He is ioi the union with the kingdom of Gieece ; not July of the lonian islands, but of all that pai t of Gieece winch is now subject to Turkey All this is very natuial But the expansive mind of Signor Dandola is not bounded by Septmsular politics. He also takes a very gieat mteiest in Italian affairs. The English uadei will naturally heie tike it for gianted, that Sig1101 Dandola must be a fnm partisan of the hbeity and unit}' of Italy. Nothing of die kind. To think thus is to f vil to appreciate the many-sidedness of the soul ot Dandola, which is capable of antithetical combinations peifectly astounding to ouhnary mortals. Signor Dxndola, lepnblican at Corfu, becomes legitimist and despotist, as soon as his mental foot is planted m Itaby. The King of Italy w a lobber Ganbaldi is an assassin Francis 11. is, Dandola assures us, the best of kings, and the most humane of men. As for the Empeior of Austiia, and the Dukes of Tuscany and Modpna, then misfoitunes must have been greatly snofched by the eloquent sympathy and counsel of Signor Dxndola, who has favouied each of those princes with Ins epistolaiy coriespondence. Need I say more of Dandola the politician ? The patuolic character of Dandola, in Ins peisonal conduct, partakes of the dianthiopical natuie of his political confoimation. There is, fiist, the self denying thewetical patriot, who lately pimted his belief that no honest man would accept office in company of the piesent O'oifu officials. Theie is, secondly, the moie piactical patriot, who, only a few weeks previously, had demanded a lucuitive post from the Lord High Commissioner. Need I say more of Dandola the patriot ' "

Poisonous Cosmetics —At the Fiencli Academy of Science, Dr. Eg veil read a paper on the necessity of pi eventing peifumeia from selling poisonous or dangerous articles, which should be exclusively left to the responsibility of regular chemists, and not sold without a physician's prescuption. "To show the danger theie is m allowing the unchecked sale of compounds," he said, " I need but state that aisenic, the acid nitrate of nieicury, taitar emetic, canthandes, colchicum, and potassa caustica form part of their ingiedients. The kind of soap called lettuce soap, which is sold with the announcement that it has been acknowledged by the academy, does not contain the slightest tiace of lettuce. This and other soaps are all colouied, green by the sesqui-o\ide of chromium, or of a rose by the bi-sulphuret of mercury known as vermilion. Some which are cheapei, contain thiity per cent, of insoluble matter, such as lime or plaster ; while otheis contain animal nitrogenous matter which, having escaped the pi ogress of sapomfication, emits a bad smell when its solution is left exposed to the air. The vauous toilet vmegais aie so far noxious that being applied to the skin still impiegnated with soap and water, they give rise to a decomposition, in consequence of which the fatty acids of soap, being insoluble in water, are not lemoved by washing, become rancid, and cause a chionic inflammation of the skin. The pieparations employed for hair-dye under the pompous names of ' African water,' ' Flonda water,' &c, all contain nitiate of silvei, sulphiu, ovide and acetate of lead, sulphate of copper, and other noxious substances. All cosmetics for lemovmg hairs or freckles are dangerous; the lait untCphCUque, for instance, contains corrosive sublimate and oxide of lead. Were a chemist to deliver such a remedy to a customer without a regular prescription, he would be liable to a fine of 6,000 francs." Dr ESveil concluded by expiessing his regret that ceitain physicians should so far forget their own dignity as to lend the support of their names to such noxious inventions.

Holloway's Pills. —Youthful infirmities.— From causes scai celypeiceptible at fust, the young become in emakuely enervated, ami debilitated They lose alike their looks, eneigy, and confidence. The general cause of this melancholy state is a disordeiecl stomach, which Holloway's Pi Us will leg date. By unpioving digestion, and puiiiying the blood, they woik wondeis. They act so kindly, yet so ceitamly, upon every oigan neccssaiy for healthy digestion, that the ueivous system booh ieoovei», aud the wonted good spirits speedily ictnm with sttengtb, vivacity, and vigoiu The moot delicate may safely take Holloway's IMN Tlip^ «.vu< no violenc cilecta upon the system, but giadudliy nccomphsh then end without much lesbuction m diet or pleasuio. The composition of these Pills secures them from, doing mischief.