512 



The Country Gcntlcuiaiis Magazine 



^tBccUanca. 



TO PREVENT DECAY OF WINES. 

 The decomposition of wine may be arrested without 

 the addition of any.drug or deleterious compound. The 

 plan is to heat the wine that is fermenting to about 

 130°, this causes the destruction of the ferments, which 

 fall as a powder to the bottom of the cask, or vessel ; 

 after which the fluid becomes clear and palatable. 

 This may answer for malt liquors, but we cannot speak 

 on this point with certainty. 



AGEINC; WINES. 



This may also be effected without the addition of 

 any foreign substance, by keeping the wine for a few 

 days at a temperature of 100 deg. This causes in- 

 creased chemical action of the ferments, and speedily 

 ages the wine. 



A GOOD CEMENT. 



Gutta percha dissolved in chloroform, so as to 

 make a fluid of the consistency of hone)-, produces a 

 good cement. When spread it will dry in a few 

 moments, but it can be softened by heating. Small 

 patches of leather can be cemented on boots by its 

 use in such a manner as "to almost defy detection, and 

 some shoemakers employ it with great success for this 

 purpose. It is water-proof, resisting all the elements 

 but heat. 



GERANIUM LEAVES. 



It is not generally known that the leaves of the 

 geranium are an excellent application for cuts, where 

 the skin is rubbed off, and other wounds of that kind. 

 One or two leaves must be bruised and applied to 

 the part, and the wound \\\S\ be cicatrized in a veiy 

 short time. 



EFFICACY OF ONIONS. 

 A writer says: — "We are troubled often with 

 severe colds, the result of colds of long standing, 

 which may turn to consumption or premature death. 

 Hard coughs cause sleepless nights by constant irrita- 

 tion of the throat, and a strong effort to throw off 

 offensive matter from the lungs. The remedy pro- 

 posed has often been tried, and is simply to take into 

 the stomach before retiring for the night a piece of raw 

 onion after chewing. This esculent in an uncooked 

 state is very heating, and collects the water from the 

 lungs and throat, causing immediate relief to the 

 patient. " — Washiiii^ton Chrciiiclc. 



doc; BITES. 

 Tlie veterinary surgeons are proving very 

 satisfactorily in the Times that a dog's bite is 

 just as dangerous at one time of the year as at 

 another, and may occasionally produce tetanus, like 

 any other bad wound, whether the dog be "mad" or 

 not. Mr Coote gives an example of a bite which 

 caused death from tetanus six weeks later, though the 

 dog did not go mad, but fed as usual, and shewed no 

 further symptoms of excitement. Probably a haggled 

 wound from a nail would have just the same effects. 

 Whence the inference that Sir R. Mayne is doing very 

 right to have all the dogs muzzled — not only now, but 

 throughout the year : a perfectly logical conclusion, at 

 which Sir R. Mayne will probably exult gi-eatly — but 

 what a prospect for our dogs ! Lest their bite should 

 have the same effect that a scratch with a pin might 

 have on a person in ill-health, they may be condemned 

 to wretchedness all the year round ! A diseased cat 

 bit two persons and a horse the other day in Paris. 

 The Spectator suggests, therefore, that Sir Richard 

 Mayne should issue a general order for the universal 

 muzzling of metropolitan cats. 



A NEW LOCK. 



If electricity, in its wild and natural state, be to a 

 man a furious and fitful enemy, it is, \vhen tamed and 

 domesticated, a patient slave, an obsequious agent. 

 For each of the hundred freaks that it plays in the one 

 condition, there can be set off some useful ser\-ice that 

 it performs in the other. The last electrical novelty is 

 a really safe and burglar-proof lock, one which raises 

 an alarm by ringing a bell or otherwise, if any key 

 but the lawful one is inserted in it, or if any attempt 

 is made to pick or to force it. The principle of the 

 contrivance can be easily understood. Wires from a 

 battery, with a bell in their course, are led into the 

 lock, and whenever a piece of metal is thrust into the 

 keyhole, a circuit is completed by which a current is 

 sent to agitate the bell. If one of the tumblers alone 

 be raised the bell also sounds. The master-key does 

 not raise any alarm because it is covered with an insu- 

 lating compound which prevents the establishment of 

 the metallic connexions requisite for the passage of the 

 current to the bell, and likewise, because it lifts all the 

 tumblers at once. We have heard of tell-tale locks, 

 but these betray tampering only after the mischief is 

 done ; here is a protector that cries, " Stop thief! " in 

 good time. — Oiicc-a- Week. 



