POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



7 l 3 



half of this. The pressure of the gas as it 

 issues at the mouth of the well is nearly or 

 quite two hundred pounds per square inch. 

 Even at the works of the company repre- 

 sented by Mr. Carnegie, nine miles from the 

 well, the pressure is seventy-five pounds per 

 square inch. Eleven lines of pipe are con- 

 veying gas from the various wells to the 

 manufacturing establishments in and around 

 Pittsburg. Although it is only two years 

 since gas has been used in Pittsburg, it has 

 already displaced 40,000 bushels of coal 

 per day in the mills that have used it, 

 and about an equal amount has been dis- 

 placed in the works beyond the city limits. 

 Contracts are now made to supply houses 

 with gas at a cost equal to that of the coal 

 bill for the preceding year. In many houses, 

 no other fuel than this gas is used ; and 

 everybody who has applied it to domestic 

 purposes is delighted with the change from 

 the smoky and dirty bituminous coal. It 

 is, therefore, Mr. Carnegie suggests, quite 

 within the region of probability that the 

 eity, now so black, may become so revolu- 

 tionized as to be the cleanest manufacturing 

 city in the world. 



English Board-School Science. Dr. An- 

 drew Wilson's "Health" has been struck 

 with some of the answers in the school- 

 children's examination-papers in popular 

 science, and gives a few specimens of them. 

 Among them are " the humerus (or upper 

 arm-bone) is known as the ' numerous,' and 

 is often called ' the funny-bone.' " " The 

 sweet -bread is otherwise called the pan- 

 eras (for pancreas), which is so named from 

 the Midland Railway Station in London." 

 " A thermometer is an instrument used to 

 let out the heat when it is going to be cold." 

 " When roasting a piece of beef, put it in 

 front of a brisk fire, so as to congratulate 

 the outside." " Sugar is an amyloid. If 

 you were to eat much sugar and nothing 

 else, you would not live, because sugar has 

 not got no carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitro- 

 gen. Potatoes is another amyloids." Very 

 interesting is the description of digestion 

 given by one of the pupils : " Food is di- 

 gested by the action of the lungs ; digestion 

 is brought on by the lungs having some- 

 thing the matter with them. The food then 

 passes through your windpipe into the pores, 



and thus passes off you by evaporation, 

 through a lot of little holes in your skin 

 called capillaries. The food is nourished 

 in the stomach. If you were to eat any- 

 thing hard you would not be able to digest 

 it, and the consequence would be you would 

 have indigestion. The gall-bladder throws 

 off juice from the food which passes through 

 it. We call the kidneys the bread-basket, 

 because it is where all the bread goes to. 

 They lay concealed up by the heart." 



A Story of Two Rats. A correspondent 

 of " Land and Water " tells a story of two 

 white rats which he had adopted as pets. 

 The male was a quiet, commonplace sort of 

 rat, acquaintance with whom afforded few 

 incidents of particular interest. The fe- 

 male was a great coquette, and a regular 

 domestic tyrant, exercising absolute control 

 of her spouse and household. Always 

 pleased with the gift of some dainty, she 

 was " rapturously delighted " if allowed to 

 think she had stolen it. If the master 

 would have a piece of sugar on the table, 

 she would creep up and take it, retreating 

 behind a book to devour it, as she hoped, 

 unobserved. She was a relentless enemy 

 to mice ; and, when one of these animals 

 was put into her cage, " she flew at it and 

 slew it with a single bite, leaving it instant- 

 ly, as a well-trained terrier does the rat it 

 has killed." The first occasion of Anna 

 Maria having little ones was quite an event. 

 " When I went to the box, as usual, to give 

 my little rodents a scrap of whatever I might 

 have had, I found Augustus (the male) sit- 

 ting out in the cold and looking terribly 

 sheepish. On opening the sleeping com- 

 partment, there was Anna Maria, with some- 

 thing like a smile upon her shrewish little 

 countenance, keeping watch and ward over 

 nine ridiculously naked little offspring. On 

 these occasions Augustus was completely 

 effaced. He shirked the slightest responsi- 

 bility ; and I always had to make him up a 

 separate bed, for sleep with his children he 

 would not. If by chance he was forced to 

 walk among them, he did so with an anxiety 

 that would have done credit to an elephant 

 stepping between eggs. As they grew up, 

 assumed hair, and began to run about, he 

 would allow them to take liberties with him, 

 and even rob him of tidbits." The master 



