MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Issue 3331, 22 February 1879, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

.». Tobacco. — The active substances in tobacco by which its varied effects are produced are a volatile oil, a volatile alkali, and an empyreuraatic oil, which is produced during the burning of the tobacco in smoking. The volatile oil is called nicolianine, and when applied to the nose occasions sueeziug ; and when taken internally it produces nausea and giddiness. From a pound of- leaves only two grains of nicotianine are obtained. The volotile alkali, commonly callevl nicotine, has its name from/Nicot, a French ambassador to Portugal, who first brought the plant to the . attention of scientific men, and did much to render' 1 jtSiUse, fashionable iu Fiance. This principle forms from two to mx per cent, of the leaf. It is. a colorless, -ojly.Jiquid, of a strong alkalide reaction, disagreeable smell. and hot, acrid taste. This .alkaloid is one of the most powerful of nerve po^ons. producing in animals tetanic? convulsions followed by paralysis, and deatli through fnifuie of respiration. A single drop will kill a rabbit iu less than four minutes. /"lts vapor is so irritating, that iU? t difficult to, -toea^ in a room where a single drop has been evafjof ated . In man it produces intense nausea and vomiting; faintness, muscular debility, cardiac failure, and general prostration, '/he oil ot tobacco which is produced' by burning ifr resembles an oil which is obtained from the leaf of the' poisonous foxglove. • It is acrid and disagree? able to, the „ taste, narcotic, and poisonous.. One drop -on" the tongue of a cat killed the creature in two minutes. The Hottentots are said to kill snakes by putting a drop of it on their tongues. 1 Uudcr its ihfhtence, 1 they die 1 as 'instantaneously as if killed by an electric shock: 'Thecrrideoil is supposed-to-be, lhe "juice of cursed hebenan," : described' by I Shakspeare as a distilment ; this it was- that killed Hamlet's father as he lay sleeping in. the garden. Besides these three principles, tobacco contains albumen, resin, and. gum, and an' unusual quantity. . of .'inorg/in^c^in- , gradients, among which are nitric, phes^ phoric; and malic acids, and lime, and potash 1 . Chronic'poisoning by tobacfto shows' its,elMn dyspepsia, in nervousness, and in palpitation or irregular action of the heart. With smokers inflammation of throat and tonsils is exceedingly common., Every 41b. o£ perfectly dry tobacco contains lib. of mineral or incombustible matter.. -.The substances composing.his matter- are drawn, of course,, from the soil in which the plant is grown, and they belong to the class of bodies whiclnare at once most necessary to vegetation arid.. least- abun- . dant, even in fertile soils. Every ton. of tobacco exhausts the soil as much as would fourteen, tons oE wheat raised on the same soil. Less ,than a century of tobacco growing completely exhausted the coast counties of,, Virginia, and left the towns that once flourished there buried in forests' of t new pine. , — New York Tribune. Iron That will not Rust.— Professor Barffs invaluable invention,' 'by 'means of which 'he gives to ordinary,' iron an'incorrodible coating of the magnetic oxide, is one which is likely to be of great service to the cause of practical hygiene.. We haxc latelyhad an opportunity of . visiting- Professor . Barffs laboratory, and of .seeing his processand its results. The process is exceedingly simple, and consists. merely. in the.subjecting of iron to the action of superheated steam— steam having a temperature of 1 ,5000 ,F We. saw water-troughs and saucepans which had been left £lled with water for weeks, but upon which no particle of rust was visible. . Ironpiping, and ornamental castings were lying among the wet leaves in the, garden outside the laboratory, and had been lying therefor' seven months past, but- the atmosphere had been unable to e^ert any action upon them whatever. The cost of the process js but trifling, and is cheaper, we believe, than ' galvanising I,'1 ,' and , much cheaper thsn the con-stantly-recurring of painting. Its applications to sanitary purposes are obvious. Professor Barff is preparing" a collection of;,hygienic apparatus for pre c e-ita'nn to the Parkes Museum, where it may fce inspected by all who are interested in sanitary matters. —Lancet., . . M Useful Implement,— A steam earth-scoop was introduced to South Australia „ some months ago, and is said to have been a great success. ' I It w.'S designed by Mr Peter Waite, partner with Sir T.' Elder ia large pastoral properties: Mr Waite, it appears, felt convinced that steam might be used ad-' vantageously instead of horse- or bullock Sower in connection with the excavation of ams, and went to England to see if his views could be carried out. He entered into communication with Uessrs Fowler and Col,, of Leads, who succeeded inprodncing a machine, at a cost of about £300, which answers. tbe' purpose: Since its introduction, the machine has been at work on the Paratoo run, andthe following account of its operations is given ' by a person"who' saw it at work:—' In a, period of eight ' months-^wbich but for long' stoppages due to want of skill on- the part of 1 workmen repairing breakages in the early days of the-work, and to defects in mechanical details which have now been to a large extent corrected,. .-wquld^ certainly not have exceeded six reservoir eighty yards square aif-the surface, and sloping down on all sjdes.at a gradient of one in three until it reacn^ftp^tpenSScular^depthVof "-'clbsfe on 24ft., has beetfdug omV From thisexeavation — christenefr'by /fcne surveyor general Loch-wmnoch-repnsidcrably over "-30,000 cubic yards of eyAn-have'been'femoved and spread and consQHdatied 'upon^the banks in such a way as to /increase the' immediate holding capacity of f the"res"ervoir to 'something in excess of 7,0t00,000ga1., and all at'a cost of less than £900. "'What the expenditure of time and money upon the same work would have been under the- old system it is extremely difficult to^ estimate.. As a matter of fact, no dams of such cleptlt have been formed upon the run by- manual labor assisted by the bullock-scoop ; and"- the cost of excavating shallower reservoirs of equal capacity would, to' judge by experience, have been at least £2,000. Add to this the fact that the time occupied m the undertaking would bave been something like two years, and it will be at once 'seen -of what immense" advantage the steam-scoop is upon properties'' held under leases which -have only a limited time to run." ■ What the Ameeb tkd?ks might come of Admitting an English Envoy (as he puts it in his broken English). — l f Amjeje today, might be gone to-morrow." . „, ,> r * • : .To Mothers. — How to , teach, your /child to walk. — Give it in .charge of a step-mother. He that wears a tight boot is likely to have a narrow understanding. . - , Equal to the Occasion! — He thought to head off the voluble -barber. Sitting down in ' a chair, he said : "l f want' 'a 1 'shave) a shampoo, a bath, a bottle of bair'tonitfj-one of Florida water, a privatecupand brush, and a stick of cosmetic.*' The tonsorial artist was staggered -for an instant, but quickly recovering, he suggested that he was the' agent /for " the ■ new patent flexible steel-wire.- hair brush, warranted to -keep in any climate, only one dollar and a' half." Useful I^fobmation. — Somebody estimated that 'every- man'who lives to be sixty years old Kas spent' seven months buttoning his shirt collar. '"Thirty yeai-3 more ought to be added for hunting up tHe'collar button. A Pbomisi;n» Pabtseb. — Have you played much, Mr Green 1 Oh, yes.; a.'good deal: ; I hope you have good luck.-- Oh, yes, very ! Once I had thirteen trumps in my own' hand. Really! Then of course you were dealer? Oh, no ; indeed I wasn't; I played third hand! - '. • - . No, Accounting fob ,So,ME,f People.— Replying to an inquiry addressed to him by the editor of the Agricultural', Worldj asking him whether he had ever been in America, Mr Gladstone writes :—" Sir. — I regret to 'say Oe'er.— Your obedient servant, W. E.Gladstone." But the question is, it 'he really regrets having to say never, why on. earth he says it, after all? -„ Re the Glasgow Bank.— Evangeline : PapaA(tp Paterfamilias,' whose wife and five ■daughter's run heavy bills- at the milliner's} — what is unlimited liability? ,Papa : Marriage, my dear. The Evil of Reticence.— Fidgety and Cantankerous Old Lady : Can you tell me, young man, if this is the right train for Isleworth? Young Man : Isleworth 2 No, madam ; yon should have changed two or three stations ago. Old Lady : Well, I'm sure. I think you might have had the decency to tell me that before, and not let me come all this way for nothing I ' Hate's Beeadth. Scape. —In burglary a man and his wife were horribly lightened. " the man's hair .turning white be- * ore morning." The woman : was' as'" miich 1 armed as her husband, but upon examining er hair it was found not to have changed a nt. It is supposed that the box in' which i was kept acted-as < noarcouductor.