NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



285 



by the oak-leaf ; unassumiiigness by the corn-flower 

 (the cyano ;) and the attriculas, " how kindly thej' 

 look upon us with their child- like eyes ! " Even the 

 disi)ositions of the human soul arc expressed by 

 flowers. Thus silent griof is ])ortrayed by the weep- 

 ing willow ; sadnes^3 by the angelica ; shuddering by 

 the aspen ; melancholy by the cypress ; desire of 

 meeting again by the starwoit ; the night-smelling 

 rocket is a figure of life, as it stands on the frontiers 

 between light and darkness. Thus Nature, by these 

 flowers, seems to betoken her lovely sympathy with 

 us ; and whom hath she not often more consoled 

 than heartless and voiceless men were able to do ? 



Influence of cutting the Hair. — Medical men 

 are occasionally asked whether it is proper to cut 

 the patient's hair ; whether, in fact, this operation 

 has any influence upon the health. M. Fredorique 

 resolves the question by giving the following illus- 

 tration : — 



A little girl, aged three years, of good health in 

 general, had her hah- grow excessively long during 

 the course of a few months. She was a beautiful 

 child, but had latterly wasted without any apparent 

 cause, becoming dull and apathetic, losing her appe- 

 tite and strength, without any organic lesion being 

 discernible. She was placed upon a tonic regimen, 

 with chalybcates, but without deriving material 

 benefit, until her hair was cut short, at the sugges- 

 tion of a friend, from which time she rapidly gained 

 strength. 



It would appear, from this case, that the economy 

 had suffered a loss in the expenditure of blood ne- 

 cessary for the secretion of the abundant crop of 

 hair. M. Frcderique considers that it is the forma- 

 tion of the coloring matter which chiefly exhausts 

 the blood, as this is formed at the expense of the 

 ha;matosine. — Farmer and Mechanic. 



GiiOANiNG AND Crtinq. — A French surgeon 

 lately published a long dissertation on the beneficial 

 influence of groaning and crj-ing, on the nervous 

 system. He contends that groaning and crying are 

 the two grand operations by which nature allays 

 anguish, and that he has uniformly observed that 

 those patients who give way to their natural feel- 

 ings, more speedily recover from accidents and oper- 

 ations than those who suppose it is unworthy a man 

 to bctraj' such symptoms of cowardice as either to 

 groan or to cry. He is always pleased by the crying 

 and violent roaring of a patient during the time he 

 is undergoing a severe surgical operation, because he 

 is satisfied that he will thereby so soothe his nervous 

 system as to prevent fever, and insure a favorable 

 termination. From the benefit, hysterical and other 

 patients (nervous) derive from groaning and crying, 

 he supposes that by these processes of nature, the 

 superabundant nervous power is exhausted, and that 

 the nervous system is rendered calm and even, the 

 circulation of the blood greatly diminished. Ho re- 

 lates a case of a man, who, by crying and bawling, 

 reduced his pulse from one hundred and twenty to 

 sixty, in the course of two hours. That some pa- 

 tients often have a great satisfaction in groaning, and 

 that hysterical patients often experience great relief 

 from crying, arc facts which no person will deny. 

 As to restless, hypochondriacal subjects, or those who 

 are never happy but when they are under some 

 course of medical or dietetic treatment, the French 

 surgeon assures them that they cannot do better 

 than groan all night, and cry all day. By following 



this rule, and obser\'ing an abstemious diet, a person 

 will eff'ectually csca))e disease, and may prolong life 

 to an incredible extent. — Selected. 



iHcrljanifs' SJcpartment, ^rts, $^t. 



Alum. — The uses of alum arc manifold and im- 

 portant. Incorporated with paper, it presents a hard, 

 smooth surface, fit for writing upon ; furriers employ 

 it in the preservation of the hairy covering of skins; 

 it retards putrefaction in animal substances, and 

 hardens the tallow used for candles. Its astringent 

 properties are valuable in medicine, and its caustic 

 properties, as calcined alum, in surgery. But it is 

 in dyeing that the use of alum is most important and 

 most widely diff'used. It is rare that coloring mat- 

 ters present any affinity to the substances to be dyed ; 

 most of them would disappear with the first washing, 

 were there no medium by which they could be fixed. 

 The substance employed for this purpose is called a 

 mordant, or bitter-in ; and in this respect alum holds 

 a preeminent rank. This mineral is also made sub- 

 servient to other less praiseworthy purposes ; bakers 

 use it to give a good color to bad flour, and to swell 

 a comparatively small lump of dough into a large 

 loaf ; iced ginger beer and lemonade, offered for sale 

 at railway stations and other places in England, if 

 narrowly inspected, will be found imbedded in lumps 

 of alum, which pass very well for ice. — Farmer and 

 Mechanic, 



Important Invention. — An invention has been 

 made, and will soon be brought before the public, of 

 great importance to railroads, both as relates to ex- 

 pedition and safety in the running and management 

 of trains — and one which will add greatly to the 

 security of property and life. It is an apparatus 

 called the self-adjusting brake, in which the brake and 

 coupling of the cars are combined in one, and so 

 arranged that a single brakeman can control a long 

 train of cars, and bring them to an almost instanta- 

 neous stand when in full motion. By one and the 

 same operation the brake is brought to bear with 

 equal force on the wheels of each car, so that all are 

 checked in the same degree, and there is none of the 

 jamming together of the cars which is usual in 

 bringing a train suddenly to a stand. The cars 

 couple themselves when they come together, and 

 the brakeman can couple or disconnect the whole 

 train without stepping from the platform, and can 

 control the train equally well from any platform in 

 the train. The power he is able to apply at any 

 instant is immense, and may be varied at from one 

 pound to twenty tons, at will. When a train is so 

 very long as to make more than one brakeman desira- 

 ble, as is sometimes the case with freight trains, the 

 moment the brake is applied by one of them, it con- 

 veys the necessary signal to the other. 



This improvement has been examined and highly 

 approved by some of the most practical and scientific 

 mechanics in the country, among them Mr. Keeler, 

 of the Patent Office, so well known for his great 

 mechanical knowledge, whose favorable opinion may 

 be considered as conclusive in its favor. — Selected. 



Soldering Cast Iron with Wrought Iron. — 

 The following process has been recommended for 

 that purpose: First, melt filings of soft cast iron 

 with calcined borax, in a crucible ; then pulverize 

 the black vitreotis substance, which is thereby pro- 

 duced, and sprinkle it over the parts which are in- 

 tended to be united ; after which heat the pieces of 



