POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



715 



the face of these facts, it is not to be won- 

 dered at that " sewage farming " has not 

 proved a commercial success. AVe must, 

 indeed, be in doubt whether, when the cir- 

 cumstances are more tlian usually unfavor- 

 able, it exercises any very great purifying 

 action upon the putresciblc mixture. In 

 the treatment of putresciblc refuse we have 

 to aim at nitrification rather than putrefac- 

 tion, and it is certain that by mixing with 

 water putrefaction is encouraged and nitri- 

 fication delayed. It seems to be almost in- 

 contestable that the proper course to pursue 

 with regard to organic refuse — putresciblc 

 matter — is the very reverse of what we do 

 pursue. We clearly ought to encourage oxi- 

 dation and make putrefaction impossible. 

 Putrefaction is certainly a great cause of 

 ill-health. The putrefaction of organic ref- 

 use when mixed with water has. Dr. Poore 

 thinks, been the chief cause of the develop- 

 ment of modern sanitary progress — that is, 

 of the need of doing something. Our fore- 

 fathers were not given to this method of 

 treating putresciblc matter. House-slops 

 trickled along open gutters, and excremeutal 

 matters were deposited in dry pits. 



Cameo - entting for Amatenrs. — Mrs. 

 Henry Mackarness, in her " Young Lady's 

 Book," represented cameo-cutting as an art 

 simple enough to be acquired without great 

 difficulty, which would "give young ladies 

 a new and elegant pursuit." Only two 

 kinds of tools are used, which are named 

 the scawper and the spit-sticker. The work 

 is performed at a bench or table, furnished 

 with suitable gripping apparatus, the shell 

 being fixed with setter's cement on a stick, 

 which may be made of a five-inch section of 

 a broom handle. Care should be taken to 

 select a piece of shell without a flaw. Be- 

 ginners should choose tolerably smooth 

 pieces; but practiced workers prefer those 

 which are irregular in their surface, because 

 they furnish more scope for the exercise of 

 skill. In cutting these the design follows 

 the convolution of the shell. Care must be 

 taken in cutting not to let the ground show 

 through; but a skillful cutter v.ill so ar- 

 range his design as to produce the blush of 

 the ground in such portions as to enhance 

 the value of his work. Shells arc further 

 liable to the faults of displaying crooked 



lines in the cutting, which are believed to 

 have been the work of worms in the earlier 

 stages of their development, and of " flak- 

 ing." Beginners will draw the figure before 

 attempting to cut ; but a skillful operator 

 will cut away at once, and rough out the 

 head and face of a portrait very quickly. 

 A workman can cut a portrait from a plioto- 

 graoh 'n a few hours. The beginner should 

 not spend more than two hours at a single 

 sitting. In beginning, the learner should 

 cut a few simple outlines, such as arc fur- 

 nished by the rose, the lily, or the fuchsia ; 

 the hand soon becomes accustomed to the 

 use of the tools, and the timid cut becomes 

 exchanged for the vigorous and graceful 

 stroke of the artist. Great care is neces- 

 sary in working the shell so as not to cut 

 into the ground, on account of the extreme 

 difficulty of removing any marks. Marks are 

 removed by the use of powdered pumice- 

 stone and water, applied on a piece of 

 pointed wood ; the nest process is to smooth 

 the surface with pumice-stone and oil ; wasL 

 with a soft brush and warm water, then 

 polish with the dust of the rotten-stone and 

 sulphuric acid, mixed to a paste, and ap- 

 plied on the point of a piece of wood. 



Vaccination and Erysiiiclas. — A report 

 by Dr. Airy, on three cases of so-called fatal 

 erysipelas after vaccination, will help in 

 forming a judgment of the sort of founda- 

 tion on which the fears of an outcome of 

 this character rest. The three children 

 were vaccinated by three different practi- 

 tioners. In the first case the erysipelas 

 set in too late for it to be possible for vac- 

 cination to have had anything to do with 

 causing it ; in the second case the child was 

 surrounded with erysipelas in the surgery 

 where it was brought to be vaccinated ; in 

 the third case no definite source of erj-sipe- 

 latic infection could be discovered, but the 

 child lived in a low-lying place, close to 

 swampy and unhealthy meadows. Thus, 

 none of the cases were traceable to the 

 vaccine lymph ; and its innocence is attested 

 by the fact that other children wore vacci- 

 nated with the same lymph without the 

 occurrence of untoward symptotns. The 

 question arises next as to the degree of 

 danger of erysipelas entering the vaccina- 

 tion-scratch, or the wound left by a ruptured 



