MISCELLANEOUS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 158, 1 March 1845, Page 208

MISCELLANEOUS.

Food. — The facilities for procuring wholeBorne food are now so great, that diseases which in former times spread over extensive tracts of country, from sheer want of aliment fitted for the use of man, are now unknown. Through the progress of agriculture, almost every spot of earth is rendered useful, and the produce of our lands is vastly increased and is still increasing. The cultivation of the potato, of fresh vegetables, and of various kinds of useful fruit— the apple, the plum, the chestnut, and the orange — in the different countries of Europe, materially repress the price of wheat, and have an unquestionable influence on the health of communities. Two centuries ago a salad was not to be bought in the markets of London for money ; a cabbagestock and a carrot were unknown ; apples were scarce, and never used save in the crude and unnutritious state. Sir Walter Raleigh and Admiral Drake might have brought half-a-dozen oranges for the Queen's table, but the community had never seen the golden fruit of the Hesperides. At the present time we buy this delicious fruit at the rate of two for a penny in the streets of London ! and, through the blessing of sugar, we are never at a loss for a meal for our children when we have an apple. Sugar is, in fact, one of the grand conquests of man's industry, and the barbarism of regarding it as a luxury, and making it a source of revenue, ought to be abandoned : it is one of the prime necessaries of life, and ought to be as free as air; the first act of the stomach, upon the amylaceous principle, which constitutes about fourfifths of our ordinary food, is to turn it into sugar, and dextrine, an insipid kind of svgar — a fact from which the value of sugar as an article of nourishment may be inferred. Nature presents us with the the article ready formed, but we make it inaccessible by our absurd laws ! It is little more than a century since the great bulk of the community lived upon salt provisions through the winter. Agriculture had made so little progress, that there were no green crops, no such staple as the turnip, not merely to keep cattle alive, but to fatten them ; and so little hay was made that it was always an object to save it for the use of the stock that must be maintained till the spring. The cattle which now supply us with fresh animal food through the whole of the winter, in our grandfathers' days would all have been slaughtered and salted down at Michaelmas ; there was no more fresh meat until God's providence brought round the spring. In Sydenham and Morton's times, and even considerably later than these, among the grand causes for which the assistance of medical men was sought were the scurvy and intermittent fever. The faculty would starve now did they depend on either one or other of these diseases. The death of the members of the community was then the source of professional income, now it is their birth.— Dr. Willis. Monopoly. — Monopoly commits the crime of forbidding man to serve man. It throws up a barrier between man and man. It interdicts human intercourse, lays an embargo on human sympathies, makes it a statutable offence to do good and communicate. — P. Harwood. Probable Duration of the Supply of Coal in Great Britain. — Although the present known coal fields of Great Britain contain, perhaps, sufficient coal to supply her wants for 2,000 or 3,000 years to come, it is a very erroneous basis of calculation to assume that the whole is at our disposal. Under the present system, in the finest description of coal of the northern field, there is, even in its extraction, a loss of «36* per cent. The views of theoretical geologists, without allowing for waste, would

lead to the most incorrect practical conclusions : while Conybeare, Lardner, and others, would make our coal resources sufficient for 1,500 or 2,000 years, Professor Sedgwick and Dr. Buckland, allowing for loss in working, calculated from practical experience, are convinced that 400 years will leave little more than the name of our best seams. Of forty-five feet of coal in a section of all the coal strata, in one of the best fits of the Tyne, not thirty feet are workable, n the north, coal cannot be extracted at a profit, if less than two feet eight inches. In the western part of Wall's End, the Bensham seam is considered unworkable at two feet ten inches, though there are times when it is worked at twenty inches. The thinnest seam worked in Yorkshire is thirteen inches, in North Lancashire twenty inches, in the Northumberland and Durham districts two feet six inches, and in St. Lawrence two feet nine inches. Most of the thin seams above are worked for local consumption, and cannot bear the expense of transit and competition for manufacturing and commercial purposes. Already the Tyne portion of the northern coal field begins to feel the difficulties of exhaustion in the finer description of coal ; and that of the Wear and Tees (less worked than it) has the advantage, in commercial competition, of from nine to ten per cent. — Mining Journal.

Chinese Agriculture. — We passed the batteries which had so recently been the scene of such dreadful slaughter, and, stemming a strong current, proceeded rapidly up the river. The country through which it wends its way was a perfect flat as far as the eye could reach, and in as high a state of cultivation as the mar-ket-gardens around London. Small farmhouses stood in every direction, neatly encircled with flower-gardens, the whole presenting a perfect picture of wealth, fertility, industry, and comfort; and when we were informed (a circumstance we had every reason to believe perfectly true) that the same state of things existed, not only throughout the whole of this, but of all the neighbouring provinces, any one of which, as regards extent, would make a handsome kingdom for a European potentate, some slight idea may be formed of the endless internal agricultural wealth of the Chinese empire, and the little concern the Emperor of this mighty country has been accustomed to bestow on foreign nations, their commerce, trade, or anything else concerning them. Numerous implements of agriculture, which we supposed only to be known to the most scientific and highly-instructed European nations, were discovered in great numbers, and in constant use among them, from the plough and common harrow to the winnow and thrashing-machine, with which scarcely any farmhouse, however small, was unprovided. Added to which, for the purpose of irrigation, scarcely any considerable field that did not possess its chain-pump, for the purpose of irrigating their crops by drawing water from the lower levels, with comparatively small labour to themselves ; from which models I have not the least doubt those at present in use in our navy or merchantmen were taken. — Recollections of Service.

Population of Egypt. — The prolific soil of Egypt not merely increases the fertility of animal and vegetable life, but that of the human race likewise. This fact is noticed by many ancient writers, particularly Aristotle, who states that women in Egypt sometimes produce three, four, or even seven at a birth. Early marriages, the longer duration of life, abundance and cheapness of provisions, would tend, under the Divine blessing, still further to promote the population of this flourishing district. — Milman's History of the Jews.

The Statue of Goethe. — The Journal dcs Debats announces that the colossal statue of Goethe, which was cast in bronze at the Royal Foundry of Munich, according to the model of Schwanthaler, has been completed, and exhibited to numerous, visitors. This statue is intended to ornament one of the squares of Frank-fort-on-the-Main, his native place. Goethe is represented clad in a mantle, but having his hands free. He wears the simple costume of the present period. His right arm is resting on the trunk of an oak tree, and in his left he holds a laurel crown. His eyes are turned towards Heaven. The subjects of the bas-reliefs on the pedestal are borrowed from the works of Goethe.

Imprisonment for Debt. — By the ancient common law of England, no man or woman could be imprisoned for debt. This constitutional principle was first violated by the great feudal barons, who passed a law to protect themselves against the malversation of their own stewards, which law gave them the power of incarcerating such agents, and to this extent only it originally operated. Subsequently, rich merchants obtained a similar privilege against their creditors ; and from these beginnings, the law of imprisonment for debt became general, being deemed essential to the stability of credit, and the best guarantee against the risks of mercantile speculation. — Sentinel. A Hint to Book-borrowers. — Of persons who borrowed books, but did not return them, Lord Eldon said, " though backward in accounting, they seemed to be practised in bookkeeping." Labour, a Consoler. — There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were he ever so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works ; in idleness alone there is perpetual despair. Doubt, desire, sorrow, remorse, indignation, despair itself — all these, like hell-dogs, lie beleaguering the soul of the poor day-worker as of every man; but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all these are stifled — all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves. — Thomas Carlyle.