ENGLISH MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 3695, 13 September 1873, Page 5

ENGLISH MISCELLANEOUS.

Db. Eliza Waikee has just been appointed house physician to the Bristol Hospital for Women and Children. In future, medical and surgical appointments will be open to lady candidates. ' Her Majesty's Commissioners for International Exhibitions have appointed Mr. H. Cole, 0.8., as acting commissioner, at a salary of £1000 a year, with a share in the profits o'f each annual exhibition. A full-length portrait of the Kight Hon. Sir Jamea 'Fergusson, late Governor of South Australia, has just been painted -by Mr. Sydney-Hodgeß. It will bo exhibited in the Australian Court of the International Exhibition, previous to being eenfc out to Adelaide, 'hero it is to be placed in the New University Buildings. The Queen has just presented toLadySmith, of Lowestoft, a copy of. "Leaves from Our Journal in the Highlands," in commemoration of her 100 th birthday, celebrated in May last. The Queen has written on the fly-leaf, "To Lady Smith, on' her 100 th Birthday, from "Victoria R., Balmoral, 1873." Miss Emily Faithfull has been appointed correspondent of the New York World. She is now engaged on a work, to be published during the fall, entitled, "My Impressions of America." A new, daily paper is announced, at an altogether unprecedented low price. It is to be cilled the Country Daihj Ne:cspapcr, and its special object will, be to supply the rural districts with a daily paper of Conservative principles, at such a price that everyone above the status of a pauper will be able" to take it in. The price will be Id per week for a paper every day, or_ a farthing for a single copy. A Kiel professor of philosophy has, according to the German papers, given a ball to celebrate the 2302 nd anniversary of the birth of Plato.

We learn from Nature that M. Thiers is now busy studying geology, for the purpose of writing an essay on the destiny of mankind. He will take an anti-Darwinian viow of the question.

Mr. Wormersley, of the Oarrow Works of Messrs. Colman'a gigantic mustard and starch business, has invented and patented a piece of mechanism for improving and facilitating the manufacture of small wooden boxes, varying from nine inches to twenty-four inches in length, with a proportionate depth. Of such boxes an enormous number are requisite in the Oarrow business. By the new machine there is not only a great saving in time and labour, but the box is much more finished, and easily rendered air-tight. The machine cuts transversely iuto a wooden board, of a width and length that varies for different-sized boxes, three rather deep V grooves, and at the same time bevels the rough ends of the board. This done, the board can be folded or bent together until the groove is close, with or without glue added, when there are produced the four sides of a box, only a bottom and a lid being wanted to complete it. Naih are knocked in crosswise at each of the mitred corners, a bottom and a lid are quickly nailed on, and then thero is completed a box without any gaping cracks at the corners. The machine was made at Carrow, by Mr. Keymer, under Mr. Wormesley's direction, and will be exhibited in the London International Exhibition.

Dr. Schultz, of Chicago, lias the merit (says the Medical Press and Circular) of having invented something unmistakably new, and of explaining one of the deficiencies of the mechanism of the circulation in man. The foramen ovale in some diving mammals (as in the seal) is open, to allow free circulation during the prolonged plunges of these creatures. Dr. Schultz, influenced by such observations, directed his attention to transforming human beings into diving animals, by obtaining the non-closure of this opening in tho early period of life. He proceeded, submitting tho new-born puppies of a setter to the experiment, by immersing them in warm water at blood heat, and keeping them immersed from two to five minutes he found that no unpleasant results followed. Fortunately- or unfortunately, as tho case may be, a little Schultz was,,, at this conjuncture, projected into this terra, incognita. The parent determined on his being amphibious, and on receiving this pleasing token of affection, he immersed it in a pail of witter heated to blood tomperaturo, and kept it below the surface for four minutes; after soma seconds the blood " found its way through the foramen ovale" The process was repeated daily, sometimes as often as five times in the twenty-four hours, till I lie little Schultz could remain submerged for twenty-five minutes at a time; and no doubt as growth increases he will perfect himßelf in amphibiosity. Should tho Gulf Stream be propitious, and no uncharitable iceberg interpose ita chilling influence, we may expect some day a herd of Schultzes or of Chicago folks to bask itself on the rocks at Queenßtown, after a series of traus-Atlantic dives.

Dr. Weidenbusch, of Woisbaden, highly recommends steam as a fire-extinguisher, nnd Buggests experiments as to the best method of employing it, as well by the use of portable boilers (where the connecting pipes would produce the chief difficulty) as by pipes und boilers arranged for each building. As an illustration of its efficiency, he gives the case of a about 196 feet long and 33 feet wide, the garret of which was filled with rags, shavings, leather-scraps, &c., in which, when the fire was detected, half the length of the roof was burning. The fire apparatus arrived abuub an hour afterwards, and the extinguishing appliances of the building itself were so defective that the whole roof was iu flames and had fallen in, and the lower story was on fire in different places. About two hours and a-half after the outhreak. of the fire a Bteam boiler, separate from tho building, and not in use for some hours, was fired up with wood, and the cast-iron pipes were cut by a daring carpenter, who entered a room of the burning building. The effect was instantaneous. The room, filled with the steam issuing under high pressuro (which, however, he does no consider essential), soon darkened, one portion after another ceased to burn, even tho heaps of rags on the garret, with five access of air, wero gradually extinguished, and after half-an-hour all daDger was regarded as past. The effect was too marked to be ascribed to the fire-engineß operating during the same time, and the firemen were more and more impressed with the fact that their labour was superfluous as the Bteam eamo into play. LSells Life says that Captain Macliell has offered 8000 guineas for Doncaster, this year's Derby winner, which Mr. Merry has refused.

The Shuli of Persia's throne is of sandalwood, studded with emeralds ; l-lie carpet, of the tbrone-room ia sown with pearls, and he wears the Raryanoor, a sister diamond of the Kohinoor, in his belt. A French writer proposes to photograph dispatches to microscopic minutes, aud blow them through a pneumatic tube sunk under the' water, as under the Dover Straits. At t-tie end of their journey the despatches would be reproduced in their natural sizes. Bulky despatches would thus he transmitted with the tame facility and rapidity as the smallest.

A special telegram from a correspondent at Berlin states that much annoyance is causec/ there by the false stories in circulation respecting the illness of the Emperor of Germany. His Majesty is really in good health. Owing to his age he is compelled to be prudent, however, and to take more relaxation ; but there is nothing else to warrant the reports in circulation.

Four members of the Middlesex BicyeliClub left London on the 2nd ult., on bicyelc3, for the extreme north of Scotland. They reached Wick at 6 o'clock p.m. on the 17th, and after some refreshment proceeded on to John O'Grroats' House the same evening ; tho entire distance covered being about 800 mile?, or on average of 60 miles per day. Mr. Charles Reade is gathering material for a new r.0.-el, to be founded on the grievI ances which .Mr. Plimsoll ao zealously cham-

pions. The novel will be based on facts gleaned by the author from personal interviews he had with English mariners: The "Wesleyan Methodists in Great Britain number 490,000 members.

Fans are now in higher favour than ever, handkerchiefs, however elegant, being relegated to the pocket. They are of all kinds, from the little pocket fans of highly-varnished wood, with silk, lace, or paper, for slipping into the pocket, to the elaborate affairs of tortoiseaheli, mother-of-pearl, ivory, silver, and gold, enamelled, encrusted, painted, &e., and often * costing large sums. The enormously large fans, elaborately painted, rivalling the largest ever used by our great grandmothers, are now cilled tete-a-tete, because two persons can literally " put their headß together," and have a confidential chat behind them, unseen by the rest of the company. But theso very large fans,* though a fashionable fancy of the moment, are too eccentric and extravagant to remain long in favour. According to a writer in the Academy, there are four vast areas which have never been -traversed by civilised man, and which among them constitute about one-seventeenth of the whole area of the globe. Of these the greatest ia the Antarctic region, the extent of which is about seventy-five times that of Great Britaiu ; the second lies about the North Pole; the third is in Central Africa ; and the fourth in Western Australia. The areas of these unknown regions of the globe are estimated, approximately, at 11,600,000 square miles. The question as to the strength of "wrought iron, and the effect proJuced on the structure of the metal by wear and tear, is one that has been much discussed since railways came into operation, and is not yet settled. Experiments made recently gave results which are worthy of notice. A wrought axle, two and a-half inches diameter, was twisted 10,S00 times, and subjected to 32,400 shocks, without changing the texture of the iron. Another, after 29,000 twists, shewed no alteration to the naked eye, but when examined by a xiicroseope, was found to be a .mass of fibres resembling a bundle of. fine wires. And so it went on, the change in the structure of the iron becoming more and more marked, tho more the iron was twisted. In the concluding experiment, the axle went through ten months of twisting, and more than 120,000 turns, and was conversed into a mass of crystals, and had completely lost the appearance of wrought iron. This confirms what has often been demonstrated, that, after long use, iron becomes unsafe.