SCIENCE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7270, 7 March 1885, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND ART.

;Thb Duke of Marlborough has Bold his famous Raphael to the British Government ior £70,000. For the past twenty-five years the chief cartoon in Punch has, with a single exception, been drawn by John Tenniel. It sometimes has to be changed a very short time before publication, . Dr. G. L. Beardsley reiterates the belief Of many scientific men that death is usually quite painless, so far as physical sensation ie concerned, and is also of the opinion that mental numbness, or a feeling of sinking into rest, frees the fear. The following cement is less expensive than that made with red lead :—One part of white lead, one part of manganese ore, one part of white pipe-clay mixed with linseed oil Tarnish, or two parts red lead, five parts White lead, and four parts pipe-clay mixed with linseed oil varnish.

Experiments have for some time been made in Belgium for preserving wood by exhausting the air from the pores aud filling them with liquid ?utta percha. The gutta persha is liquefied by mixing it with paraffin aod subjecting it to heat. After it is introduced into the pores it hardens as it becomes cold. Moore's " Lalla Rookh" is to be made the subject of one of the most ambitious attempts in the way of illustrated books that hae as yet been in America. Messrs. Estea and Lauriot will publish the poem, accompanied by 125 photo-etchings printed from steel plates, designed by leading French and American artists.

Dr. Tisne asserts that glycerine taken internally exerts a beneficial effect upon nutrition, increasing the weight, and palliating many of the distressing symptoms of phthisis, each as loss of appetite, diarrhoea, nightsweats, and insomnia. Its action upon the liver is manifested by an increase in the size of the organ, and a more abundant flow of bile. It has a diuretic effect, and increases the excretion of urea, the chlorides, and the phosphates. The alkalinity of the urine is diminished, and if any pus be present in this, it is greatly lessened in amount. A large picture has recently been discovered in Vienna representing the interior of the British House of Commons in 1793. It comprises about 100 portraits, including ■William Pitt addressing the House, Speaker Addington in the chair, and Fox, Sheridan, and Krskine on the Opposition benches. Prom a full description of this remarkable painting, contributed by Mr. Scharf to the Athenaeum, it appears that it was the work of Antony Hiokel, a native of Bohemia, who reeided in Paris, and was much in favour with Queen Marie Antoinette and the French nobility. The following French words in Lowland Scotoh, says Notes and Queries, are very commonly met with :-—Aehet (assiette) used for a large dish on which a joint ie placed ; carafe, a water bottle; aumry (armoire), a cupboard ; gigot (pronounced jiggot), a leg of mutton; geel'd (geljß), as, e.g., in "I am just geel'd with the cold ;" petticoat tails, a name given to a certain kind of small shortbread cakes—petits gateaux (petitei gatolles?); kickshaws (derived from quelquechoeel; faah (faeher), " Dinna fash yerael"—don't bother youreelf. German word?! are also met with:—Frcmut, strange; shed (scheide), the parting of the hair; mengyie, a mass or crowd, etc. ..The substitution of glass flooring: for boards continues to increase in Paris, this being especially the case in those business structures in which the cellars are need as offices. At the headquartere of the Credit Lyonnais, on the Boulevard des Italians, the whole of the ground floor is paved with large squares of roughened glass imbedded in a, strong iron frame, and in the cellars beneath there is thus sufficient light, even on doll days, to enable the clerks to work withoat eae The large central hall at the offices of the Comptoir d'Escompte has also been provided with this kind of flooring, and it is nid that although its prime cost is considerably greater than that of boards, glaes xb in the long run far cheaper, owing to its almoat unlimited durability.