Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1893 — Curious Causes of Fire. [ARTICLE]

Curious Causes of Fire.

A rat gnawing at a box of greasedipped friction matches ignited the lot. A running belt which sagged into a mass of greasy waste set fire to the heap by friction. A flood burned one factory by causing a pile of iron to filings to oxodise so rapidly as to become intensely heated. A match carelessly dropped beneath » lace curtain was stepped upjn, ignited and instantly the drapery was ablaze. A lens exposed to the sun’s rays in an optician’s window frequently acts as a burning glass before being noticed. A cockchafer crawled from an oil receptacle to a gas jet, where the creature’e oily body took fire, and, falling, spread the flames. A nail glanced from a carpenter’s hammer into the conveyer of raw material in a jute factory, rubbed against the drum and produced a spark, which set fire to theplace. Water for Babies.— According to a doctor, who numbers many babies among his patients, the little folks, whether well or sick babies, whether babies fed on the bottle or fed naturally, may have water to drink in moderation if they want it. The water should be boiled and covered, not very cold,, even warm, if the child prefers it so. v“So thoroughly,’’ he says, “ have I become convinced of the great benefit derived from giving water to sick babies that I now order it in nearly every case with fever, and it is astonishing to see how the restlessness and many of the symptoms we are apt to attribute to the pain and fever disappear when it is freely given. By freely I mean from one-h&lf to two ounces immediately after or between the feedings. If given immediately after the feeding, a smaller quantity will, of course, be required. Time and again I have teen infante with measles, scarlet fever, or pneumonia. after a period of great restlessness, fall into a qniet sleep when a couple of ounces of cool wates bad bean given.’*