One Thing and Another.

New Zealand Mail, 22 April 1887, Page 7

One Thing and Another.

SINGULAR CASE OP PARALYSIS. Thos. J. Laviue, of Pittsburg, went to the theatre recently, and sat through one act of a very emotional character, with legs crossed and looked iu the rungs of a chair. When the curtain fell he drew a breatli of relief, attempted to rise, and found that his right side was paralysed. He was carried home, ami is vory slowly recovering. Doctors suppose the paralysis to have been caused either by an unusual tension brought to hear on his braiu by temporary excitement while following the drama, or by a violent check to the circulation of blood caused by the position in which ho had been sitting. AN ANECDOTE OF JOHN WESLEY. Once when Wesley was preaching on the Exchange steps at Newcastle the mob began to throw mud and rotten eggs. A burly fish-wife, the terror of the neighborhood, ran up the steps, and/tlirowing one of her arms round Wesley’s neck, shook her fist in the - face of the rioters, and shouted : ‘lf ony yen of ye lift up another hand to touch ma canny man, ayl floor ye direckly,’—Glasgow Herald. Boido-glncine is the name of another new hypnotic." It is given for nervous insomnia in doses of from twenty grains to two drams. Ice-water enemata are used with success in the Birmingham General Hospital incases of collapse often seen during diarrhoea in young children. Italian astronomers place the age of the world at not less than 50,000,000 years, and are agreed that it has been peopled for about 50,000,000 years. Cocoa is recommended by Brazilian and Chilian papers as one of the best remedies for cholera. Dr. Pettenkofer of Germany says that ■cholera germs cannot survive an ocean voyage of more than twenty days. Dr. Charcot, in his experiements with bynotism in Paris proved that a person under this influence might sign a will or document and have no knowledge of liis action. Lampblack made from natural gas is, says Professor Mallet, of the University of Virginia, entirely free from the tarry impurities ' present in ordinary lampblack, yielding no color to ether, and feeing absolutely free from grit. The Chinese Government has refused to grant permission to the American Methodist Episcopal Mission for its steam launch to asoend interior rivers on missionary work. The preliminary steps have been taken to cut a passage from the sea into the first lake of Byerta, so as to create a military harbor. The estimated cost of the undertaking 13 £120,000 A law has been passed in Denmark permitting the police to send drunken men to their own homes in a cab if they see fit, and charge the expenses to the party who sold them the last liquor. The railway refreshment bars in England are declared by a traveller to have undergone no improvement in twenty-five years, their leading features being still those at which travellers a generation ago grumbled. The sum of 800,000 franca lias been bequeathed to the city of Paris hy a Madame Laborde, recently deceased, for the purpose of being distributed in sums of 25 francs among the convalescents leaving the Vincennes Refuge. ■ A Dr. Chudnowski recently experimented on twelve Russian soldiers with a vew to discovering the effects of cold applications to the epigastrium on the rapidity of digestion. Each soldier was regaled heartily; his epigastrium was properly refrigerated, and the exciting contest began. Unfortunately for lovers of the weed, the competitors were divided into smokers and nonsmokers. The rival teams digested their very hardest, but the non smokers outdistanced the others by the space of one of kerosene oil say that all lamps are safe with good oil, and that the ■quality of oil can be ascertained the ■following test: —Take a pint tin cup, rill it nearly full of water warmed so that an ordinary thermometer immersed in it will show 120dev., pour a small quantity of oil on the •waterf stir it a little, then pass a lighted match quickly but closely over the surface of the oil once ; if it ignites the oil is unsafe. If purchases be made of from three to five gallons at a time and this test be made people can protect themselves. ■ The frothy substance which is often found on grass, and popularly known as ‘frogspittle,’says the Boston Journalof Chemistry, has no connection with that animal. It is caused by a little insect which secretes a viscid, transparent fluid, with which he ia completely covered. To enable him to breathe he reaches out a pair of legs, and, enclosing a little bubble of air, brings it down, and afterward allosvs it to escape into the liquid. After a while the numerous bubbles convert it completely into froth or a substance resembling saliva.