MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 619, 11 December 1863, Page 10 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Early Rising.—Health and long life are almost universally associated with early rising-; and countless old people are pointed at as evidence of its good effects on the system. Can any of our readers on the spur of the moment, give a good and conclusive reason why health should be attributed to this habit 7 We know that old people get up early, but it is simply because they can't sleep. Moderate old a,«-e doss not require much sleep; hence in the a"-cd early rising is a necessity or a convenience, and fs not the cause of health in itself. Early rising, to be beneficial, must have two concomitants—to retire early and on rising early to be fully employed. ' An important advantage of retiring early is, that the intense stillness of midnight and the early morning hours favour that unbroken repose which is the all-powerful renovator of the tired system. Without, then, the accompaniment of retiring early, early rising is worse than useless, and is positively mischievous. Every person should be allowed to have his sleep out 3 otherwise the duties of the day cannot be properly performed—will be necessarily slighted, cv n by the most conscientious. To all young persons, to students, to the sedentary, and to invalids, the fullest sleep that the system will take, without artificial means, is the balm of life—without it there can be no restoration to health and activity again. Never wake up the sick or infirm, or young1 children of a morning—it is barbarity • let them wake of themselves; let the care rather be to establish an hour for retiring so early that their fullest sleep may be out before sunrise. Another item of very great importance is: do not hurry up the young and weakly. It is no advantage to pull them out of bed as soon as their eyes are open; nor is it best for the studious, or even for those in health, who have passed an unusually fatiguing day, to jump out of bed the moment they wake up; let them remain, without going to sleep again, until the sense of weariness passes away. Nature abhors two things—violence and ■a vacuum. The sun does not break out at once into the glare of the meridian. The diurnal flowers unfold themselves by slow degrees; nor does fleetest beast or sprightliest bird leap at once from its resting place. By all of which we mean to say, that as no physiological truth is more demonstrable than that the brain, and with it the Avhole nervous system, is recuperated by sleep, it is of the first importance, as to the well-being of the human system, that it should have its fullest measure of it; and to that end the habit of retiring to bed eai-ly should be made imperative on all children. At ten o'clock at night, where possible, the year round, the old, middle-aged, and the youn°should be in bed; and then the early rising will take care of itself, with the incalculable accompaniment of a full rested body and a renovated brain. We repeat it, there is neither wisdom nor safety in early rising in itself; but there is all of them in the persistent practice of retiring to bed at an early hour in winter and summer.—" Dr. Hall." Racehorses for China.—lt is stated that Golden Pledge will leave England after the St. Le"-er having been purchased by the same parties who have bought Gardener, Buckstone, Millionaire, Investment, Haddington, and other blood stock this year. The Peninsular and Oriental steamship Pera from Southampton on the 20th August had as part of her cargo Buekstone, Investment, and Millionaire, destined for China. It has, however, been ascertained that Investment died at sea. This will be a sad loss to his owner, Mr Dent, a merchant in China, who gave Mr Merry £3000 for the horse. Dictator was sold on August 26 at Stockton, to go to China. The price is said to be 2000 guineas. A curious, and in these latitudes an unusual, accident has taken place at Peckham. A little boy who had a quarrel with his mother slept all night in a corn field. The night was one of brilliant moonlight. In the morning it was found that the little fellow was blinded by sleeping under the direct action of the moonbeams, and it is feared the blindness will be for life. Bees Working Two Separate Hives. —A correspondent writes as follows on this subject to the Gardeners' Chronicle ":—Allow me to record what appears to be an extraordinary occurrence in the natural history of the honey bee. On the 30th June, this year, I hived a very strong- swarm of bees in a large straw hive. Before they had been in it many days, and consequently before the hive was replenished with combs wherein to store the honey, they discovered an empty hive about two feet distant from their own, half filled with good clean empty comb. It was not on the same level with their own, but 17 inches higher, and 17 inches to the right of it. They very sagaciously took possession of it and used it as a storehouse for honey, whilst combs were being constructed in their own domicile. But what is, if possible, still more extraordinary, is the fact that they did not abandon their storehouse at nigh.t, but left a guard of about 500 bees, who. remained there patiently and contentedly, without any apparent concern at the absence of the queen. For, generally speaking, the absence of the queen for a single hour |n summer brings a whole hive to grip f and commotion. The storehouse hive happened to be made of wood with glass windows through which I could watch the bees, and examine the combs day and night, and could thus, by ocular demonstration, both of myself and others, place the fact beyond the range of mere conjecture. I could see the honey in the combs, and the bees clustered between them, and coming out by hundreds to, the. glass when I held a light to it at night. During the day the bees at the mouth of the storehouse hive buzzed their wings with joy and ventiiated, just as if the queen had been there, At dusk some ofthem left the storehouse pnd flew down to their home: yet I cannot say that they did so more abundantly than during the day but it became more marked in the evening, because at that time bees had ceased to arrive at both luves from their work. I was in hopes that the hive would have swarmed and taken possession of the storehouse, but it has not dqne so, After using it for about three weeks, the bees removed the honey from it to their permanent abode, and have now abandoned their temporary storehouse, as no. longer required for that harvest which was %•• the time too abundant for their limited accommodation at home. Ironclads on the Mersey.—Though it is well-known that several ironclads are in course of construction in several parts of the kingdom for foreign Governments, and though one has already sailed for Russia and another for Denmark without occasioning surprise, the public suspect that any vessel of war built on the Mersey must be intended for the Confederate Governm.ent, Fov a considerable time past mysterious assertions have been circulated respecting two ironclads building in Messrs Laird's yard, and the Federal spies have never lost sight of them. A few days ago it was currently reported and believed that one of these vessels had slipped away to sea clandestinely, to join company with the Florida oft the Irish coast. That such was not the case a visit to Messrs Laird's yard made evident. There at present lie the two suspected vessels side by side, with the French flag floating over the one nearest completion. Messrs Laird make 110 mystery about El Tousson and El Mounassir, as the ships are named. They are undoubtedly built on French acco,unt, and it is understood that the French Vice-consul has given the Collector of Customs satisfactory explanations respecting them. El Tousson, which was launched some time ago, will be ready for a trial trip in a mouth or six week. El Mounassir was only launched on Saturday, but already a portion of her machinery is on board. Perhaps there are not two more formidable frigates afloat They are 23ft ft. over all, 42 ft. beam, with 19 ft. Gin', depth of hold. Tonnage, 1,850 0.m.; horse-power 350. They will combine speed with good sea-°-oin°-qualities. They are very flat-bottomed, with excediugly fine ends, and will sit low in the water. Their draught when loaded will be about 15 ft.: estimated speed, 11 knots. The stem is so formed that the vessel may be used as a ram, and the stem which overhangs affords protection to, the screw, and rudder from shot or collisions. The rig is that of a barque the masts, which are'telescopic, and the lower yards being of iron. The armour plating on the sides of the ; vessel is 4£ inches thick amidships, and rather less at 1 the ends. The plates, the joining of which together is imperceptible, are fitted into a" teak backing of great strengh. The deck is of Sin. teak, protected with iron, The bulwarks let clown in case of action jn order"to allow the turret guns to fire over them. They have two cylindrical turrets on Captain Coles' principle—one before and the oilier abaft the engineroom, heavily plated. These turrets are made for two guns each. The, pilot house is formed of teak and irop. At either end of- the vessel are raised decks wliich afford excellent accommodation for the officers and crew. In the captain's cabin provision is made for two heavy stern guns, and heavy guns can be trained from the forecastle deck. These vessels have capacity for 300 tans ofcoai. All the machinery is below the water \rae.—Svffolk Chronicl", Sep. 5. Tha. I^bncs, in an article on the Polish question says:—The ensuing winter may reduce some bands of insurgents to starvation, and may produce new complications in Germany favorable'to Russian interests ; but there is not the slightest reason to expect that the movement in Poland can be finally trampled down, or that the public opinion of Europe will tolerate such a regime as could alone prevent its wmiv. i