MISCELLANEOUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 909, 20 March 1869, Page 7

MISCELLANEOUS.

Homoeopathy has been disallowed in the Aberdeen Infirmary. Dr Reith, who has till now been one of the physicians, is a homoeopathist, and was anxious to introduce its practice into the infirmary. The other medical officers tendered their resignation in the event of this re-election. The managing body in the circumstance declined to re-elect the homceopathist.

The Builder, speaking of the education question, says: — "A. traveller observed tha,t as he was walking on one occasion under the arcade of the Horticultural Gardens, looking at the works of art displayed there, he came upon two welldressed ladies examining a statuette of Andromeda, labelled 'Executed in terra cotta.' Says one, c Where is that ?' ' I am sure I don't know,' replied the other ; 'but I pity the poor girl wherever it

The operations for the stocking of the artificial salmon-breeding ponds at Stormontfield are nearly completed for the season. The river has been fished for eleven days, and the result has been the obtaining of 311,000 ova, all of which have been safely deposited in the breeding boxes. One remarable feature in the operations this year was the capture of eight salmon and two sea-trout, perfectly clean. These fish were caught between the 13th and 26 th November, a time at which it was supposed there were no clean fish to be got.

A laughable incident occurred at Wolverhampton lately. 1400 men, women, and children had assembled to celebrate the departure of one Fiddler Joss, a " Revival" preacher, by a tea-party. When the tea was poured out, it was found that the "taste was so disagreeable as to provoke a cry that the water had been poisoned. There was great excitement ; many of the party professed themselves contented with the eatables ; bnt the rest determined to have the tea for which they had paid. A riot ensued, and, amidst the most ludicrous confusion, the " Revivalists" were dispersed by the police.

An exciting scene is reported to have occurred at Alcazar. Mdlle. Rose Saqui, a rope-dancer, was performing some jugglery feats, balancing daggers, lighted torches, &c, on the tight rope, when suddenly the terrible cry, " You are on fire !" arose from the audience. In reality, a piece of burning stuff from one of the lighted torches had fallen on her head, and set her long hair on fire. With one foot on the iron rope and another in the air, the woman did not lose her presence of mind. She passed her hand over her clothes and felt nothing. Aits cheveux,' cried the excited people. Mdlle. Saqui understood, and, carrying her hand to her head, rapidly stifled the fire. She then continued her performance as if nothing had happened.

The death is announced of Mr William Carleton, the well-known author of "Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry." Mr Carleton's genius was tincultured and highly original. He was intimately acquainted with the Irish character, and has reproduced its light, its pathetic, or its sombre colouring with much vividness and appreciation of the subtleties of the Irish nature. Of late years the brightness of his intellect had been clouded by a growing partiality to Irish whisky. He has been described as often having been seen traversing the streets with the neck of a bottle of his favourite cordial peeping forth from under his arm. In stature he was gigantic — a circumstance that caused him much uneasiness, owing to its making him the sport of street boys, and an object of wonderment to the passers by.

Two Highland drovers entered the Scottish metropolis lately, and were determined to see as many of the " ferlies" of Auld Reekie as they could. Happening to pass a certain church, that resounded at the time with the peals of the organ, they went in, and squatted down near the door of a fashionable pew. They were open-mouthed at the choristers entering in their surplices, chaunting as they went along — the organ playing, the candles burning, and all like a fairy scene. The lady in whose pew they sat came in, and wishing them to make room for her, touched the nearest on the shoulder, antd made him a sign to move along, when he said^ quite audibly, "Hoch ! woman, tak up Duncan, for he's a, far better dancer nor me,"

I Wo are told by the Nottingham Journal that there is now living a man who has had six wives. Of the six, five died, the sixth was reclaimed by her husband after the lapse of seventeen years. The marvel is, not that the man had six wives, but that there is in existence a man who has been married six times, and is yet alive. No wonder the Nottingham Journal speaks of him with amazement.

"Primo vivere," said tliß ancients in laying down maxims for the guidance of man. But the thing is very difficult to do in this good city of Paris in those days, owing to the excessive dearneas all articles have attained. It is a fact that in the last 16 years the price of meat has doubled, <tnd that all other necessaries have risen in equal or greater proportion. The dearness is owing to excessive taxation, necessitated by enormous budgets, to the abstraction of hundreds' of men from productive labour to carry arms, to the immense demolitions and embellish1 ments of Paris, to the spread of luxury, and other causes. The high price of provisions has caused attention to be seriously turned out the means of adding new articles of human food to those now in use. Already has the eating of horse-flesh come into fashion, and we have some shops in different parts of the town for the sale of that agreeable comestible. In the past year it appears not less than 600 tons have been disposed of. We also eat cats, but it is on the false pretence that they are rabbits, and the question is seriouslyput why they should not come into general use under their right name, and be bred regularly for food. As the resemblance between them and rabbit is so great that they cannob be distinguished from rabbit when cooked like it, the prejudice against them might evidently be abandoned. In certain sausasres we have donkey's flesh ; and why, it is asked, should not donkey figure in the kitchen like ox, and horse, and calf, and cat ! Why again, we hear, not eat dogs, as the Chinese do ? And why not rats, also 1 The Chinese eat them ; and there are millions in Paris. Then, again, a little while back an agriculturist seriously proposed to eat the worm m hich produces the cockchafer. He said that it is very good, and he made it, I remember, figure in a grand banquet in one of the leading restaurants in the Palais Royal. It literally swarms in some parts of the country in the spring of the year, and not only would it afford a large mass of food, but by being prevented from reaching the cockchafer stage, an immense amount of money could be saved annually, inasmuch as cockchafers do prodigious damage to crops and fruits. And why, it is demanded, should repugnance be felt to it when the Freach eat snails ? Between worms and snails, in a culinary voint of view, the line is not very strongly drawn. Why, too, not resume the old French custom of eating frogs — a custom now almost extinct" And, then, are there not numerous other creatures of the earth, the water, and the air, which are now disdained, but which would make succulent dishes? So earnest, indeed, has become the enquiry after new sorts of food, that one ingenious gentleman (he is an advocate of the name of Gagne) gravely proposed that men should eat their fellow men— the people to be eaten being criminals fattened for the purpose, or good folk willing to sacrifice themselves for the advantage of their kind. Bnt the public appetite is perhaps not yet sufficiently educated for tha-t sort of sustenance ; and, in truth before trying it, the other things recommended had better be employed.

The Secretary of State for the Colonies has I addressed the following despatch to the I Governors of these dependencies, with reference to the order ot St. Michael and St. George .-—The Queen has had occasion to observe that the constant progress of the British Empire in population, wealth and enterprise, and the increased opportunities thus happi y affoided to her subjects of rendering effective services to their sovereign and their country, have in some respects outgrown Her Majesty's means of recognising those services in a fitting manner. You are aware that, with the object of supply, ing that deficiency, it was found requisite m the yea* 1847 to enlace and modily the Ancient Order of the Bath and more recently that Her Majesty has been pleased to create a new order of Knighthood, the Star of Indis, for the reward of services rendered in relation to Her Inrtian Empire. The sphere of usefulness and eminence which is now open in the British Colonies is so varied and. extensive as to render it, m Her Majesty's judgmeuc. advisable that to them, ?s to ludia, a special form of distinction should be appropriated. b'or _ this purpose, Her Majesty had been grnci> usly pleased to sanction such a modification oi" the Statutes of the Order of Saint Michael and Sain* George, originally instituted by King George 111. ia connection with His Majesty's Mediterranean possessor^, and vow presided over hy a Prince of the Blood Royal, together with such an enlargement of its numbers, as will render it aviulab'e as a reward of distinguished merit or services in any part of Her Majesty* colonial possessions." J