POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



57i 



them more widely among the operatives. 

 The remedy should be applied to light dusts 

 by means of chimneys or draught-flues ; and 

 to the heavier ones by means of blasts to 

 drive them away. In cases where the dust 

 itself is the object of the manufacture, or is 

 to be applied in the manufacture, the remedy 

 is to conduct the processes in closed appa- 

 ratus. When either method is practicable, 

 the dust may be kept down or removed by 

 water, or the articles may be worked in a 

 moist condition. Some workmen employ 

 masks or respirators as means of individ- 

 ual protection, and they may in some pro- 

 cesses be the only efficient means avail- 

 able. They are liable to the objection that 

 they are always cumbrous and inconvenient ; 

 and frequently the workmen will become 

 careless about them, or refuse to be both- 

 ered with them, and will leave them off. 

 They should not be depended upon when 

 any practicable means of keeping down or 

 removing the dust can be employed. 



Gambling at Mente Carlo. Dr. J. H. 



Bennett gives in the "Pall Mall Gazette" 

 some impressive illustrations of the enor- 

 mous influence for evil of the gambling es- 

 tablishment at Monte Carlo, Monaco. The 

 extent of it may be best understood by a 

 simple calculation which the author owes to 

 a professional gambler. The chances of the 

 table are one in thirty-six in favor of the 

 bank, and its annual gains, after all its ex- 

 penses are paid, are $3,500,000. Hence 

 $126,000,000 and thirty-six times its ex- 

 penses in addition have to be staked in it, 

 won and lost, every year. " It is this fact 

 of the gambler dealing with large masses of 

 money that partly accounts for the strange 

 fascination exercised by gambling. A care- 

 ful player, who begins with, say, a thousand 

 pounds capital, may have fingered, accord- 

 ing to the doctrine of chances, thirty-six 

 thousand pounds before he loses his capital. 

 If he play long enough, the bank royalty of 

 one in thirty-six is sure to swallow up his 

 capital ; and then he has had all the emo- 

 tion of having been alternately successful 

 or the reverse, rich or poor. He regrets 

 when he has at last lost his initial capital 

 that he did not stop when successful, which 

 he never does, vows that he will be more 

 prudent next time, and, in order to have the 



chance, sells, borrows, raises money any- 

 how." These facts destroy the argument 

 brought forward by the patrons of the pub- 

 lic tables, that playing at them is more 

 straightforward and fairer than private club 

 gambling, and that, as long as the latter is 

 allowed, the former should not be interfered 

 with. " At a public gaming table the bank 

 royalty must inevitably ruin all who play 

 constantly long enough to have risked their 

 capital thirty-six times, even if the playing 

 is carried on honestly, if such a term can 

 be used. . . . Regular gamblers find this out 

 in the long run, and learn to avoid the pub- 

 lic establishment," resorting to the gaming 

 clubs or forming them ; and this is the ex- 

 planation of the brood of gambling clubs, 

 casinos, etc., which rise up, as at Nice, in 

 proximity with the public gambling estab- 

 lishment. " They proceed from it, are created 

 by it, would not exist without it. . . . When 

 I first inhabited the Riviera" (in 1859), con- 

 tinues Dr. Bennett, " the Monaco gambling- 

 house was a mere gambling club or casino, 

 which excited but little notice. Now it has 

 become the great attraction, the great fact. 

 Half the people one meets are going or 

 have been to Monte Carlo." 



Anti-fonling " Paint for Ships. Be- 

 cause iron and steel are peculiarly liable to 

 corrosion when immersed in salt-water, ves- 

 sels made of them require special protec- 

 tion. This can be given by covering the 

 metal with some alkaline or basic substance, 

 or the oxide of some metal electro-positive 

 to it. Caustic lime and soda are very effi- 

 cient for this purpose, and act equally well 

 when made into a paint with oil. But their 

 efficiency is destroyed when they cease to be 

 caustic, or when they are saturated with car- 

 bonic acid, which they absorb freely from 

 the air. Magnesia is equally efficient, and 

 does not absorb carbonic acid. It therefore 

 makes as good a material for a paint as 

 could be desired, and, moreover, forms an 

 excellent basis on which to lay an anti-foul- 

 ing paint, which it protects from the galvanic 

 action of the iron by isolating it, while it 

 does not affect its anti-fouling qualities. 

 Without the protection thus afforded, the 

 iron not only effects the decomposition of 

 the anti-fouling paint, but it also by contact 

 takes away the anti-fouling qualities of that 



