Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1886 — USEFUL INFORMATION. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL INFORMATION.

M. Brouardel bae ’•eported to the Paris Academy of Medicine upon the mummification of the body of a young woman which was found in a heap of straw in a cellar. The cellar had not been opened for eight months. The body was in a remarkable state of preservation. The mummification was due, according to MM. Brouardel and Megnin, to myriads of acari of various kinds whose eggs were embedded in the tissues. Honey is, according to Mr. Miltons, who published a treatise on “Bees in England,” a universal specific, and among its other valuable properties, he declares that it prevents consumption, and states that that destroyer of human life is not known in countries where honey is regularly taken as au article of food. Those who have less fa th in the specific, may perhaps attribute the cause to difference in climate rather than to honey, 'lhe Italian singers, it is also affirmed, are greatly indebted to honey; but their practice is to sharpen it with a few drops of acid, though they sometimes take it in a pure state. The small plant commonly known by the name rupturewort, made into tea, and drank frequency, is a sure cure for diarrhea, rupturewort grows in nearly every open lot, aud along the roads. It is a small plant, throwing out a number of shoots in a horizontal direction, and lying close to the ground, something similar to the manner of the pusleyweed, and bears a small darkgreen leaf, with an oblong purple spot in the center. When the stem is broken, a white milky substance will ooze from the wound. It is very palatable, and infants take it as readily as any drink. This is an old Indian cure, and may be relied on. The botanical name of this plant is Euphorbia maculata.

Mode of fixing pencil drawings: Dissolve pale resin in spirits of’ wine; lay the pencil drawing on its face upon a sheet of clean p iper, and brush the back of the drawing with the solution. This penetrates through the paper in a few minutes, and as the spirit evaporates the resin is deposited as a varnish on the drawing. This has the advantage of not cockling the paper, which aqueous solutions will do; and as the brush only passes over the back of the drawing none of the pencil marks are in any degree removed. This process will not answer with drawings on card, or any other substance too thick to be penetrated by the solution. In this case a weak solution of isinglass may be placed in a shallow dish, the drawing being passed through it so as to wet every <jart without touching it with a brush.

The following table shows the amo nt of $1 per week —$26 every six months—whi h is brought in as an addition to the principal, with compound interest at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum: For five years $304.96 For ten years. 735.15 For fifteen years 1,341.97 For twenty years 2,193.91 For twenty-five years 3,15.37 For thirty years 5,108.56 For thirty-five years 7.511.08 For forty years 1 0,9 io’o7 For forty-five years 15,680.59 For fifty years 22,423.98 There are very few persons who do not, i'opiishly, spend more than the sum of $1 per week. The saving of that sum would be an abundant pro ision for them m old age. Those now in their prime of life and vigor of manhood would do well to profit by the knowledge of the facts which the foregoing table discloses, and provide for “a stormy day” while they are ab e to do so.

The Island of Barbadoes is the most densely populated part of the earth. This island, with an area of 100,600 acres, contains a population of over 175,000 souls, that is to say, an average of no less than 1,054 people to each of its 166 square miles of territory. The Chinese province of Keang-u, which was at one time ignorantly imagined to be the most uncomfortably crowded district under the sun, contains but 850 moon-eyed celestials to the square mile, while East Flanders, in Belgium, the most thickly populated neighborhood in Europe, <an boast of only 705 inhabitants to the square mile, Coming nearer home, Westchester County, New York, with a territory three times as large, has only four-s.evenths as many people as are packed upon th s thronged, man-rid-den Caribbee Island. If the Empire State were as thickly settled as carbad oes it would boast a population of 60,000,003. Of the 175,000 souls in this island 9 per cent, are whites, and 91 per cent are blacks or mixed blood.