396 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



^Domestic !Departmcnt. 



CHEMISTRY FOR GIRLS. ^ 



BY E. THOMPSOX, M. D. 

 SOMKTIIINO THAT EVERY WoMAN SHOULD READ. — 



This is properly styled a utilitarian age, for the in- 

 quiry. "What profit?" meets us every where. It 

 has entered the temples of learning, and attempted 

 to thrust out important studies because their imme- 

 diate connection with hard money profits cannot be 

 demonstrated. There is one spot, however, into which 

 it has not so generally intruded itself — the female 

 academy — the last refuge of the fine arts and fine 

 follies. Thither young ladies are too fre(;[uently sent, 

 merely to learn how to dress tastefully and walk 

 gracefully, play, write French, and make waxen 

 plumes and silken spiders — all pretty ; but why not 

 inquire, " What profit ? " 



I take my pen not to utter a dissertation on female 

 education, but to insist that young ladies be taught 

 chemistry. They will thereby bo better qualified to 

 superintend domestic affairs, guard against many ac- 

 cidents to which households are subject, and perhaps 

 be instrumental in saving life. We illustrate the 

 last remark by reference merely to toxicologj'. 



The strong acids, such as nitric, muriatic, and sul- 

 phuric, are virulent poisons, yet frequently used in 

 medicine, and in the mechanic arts. Suppose a 

 child, in his rambles among the neighbors, should 

 enter a cabinet shop, and find a saucer of aqua fortis 

 (nitric acid) upon the work bench, and, in his sport, 

 seize and drink a portion of it. He is conveyed 

 home in great agony. The physician is sent for ; 

 but ere he arrives, the child is a corpse. Now, as 

 the mother presses the cold clay to her breast and 

 lips for the last time, how will her anguish be ag- 

 gravated to know that in her medicine chest, or 

 drawers, was some calcined magnesia, which, if timely 

 administered, would have saved her lovely, perchance 

 her first and only boy ! O, what are all the bouquets 

 and fine dresses in the world to her, compared with 

 such knowledge ? 



Take another case. A husband, returning home 

 on a summer afternoon, desires some acidulous drink. 

 Opening a cupboard, he sees a small box, labelled 

 " salts of lemon ; " and making a solution of this, 

 he drinks it freely. Presently, he feels distress, sends 

 for his wife, and ascertains that he has drank a solu- 

 tion of oxalic acid, which she has procured to take 

 stains from linen. The physician is sent for, but 

 the unavoidable delay attending his arrival is fatal. 

 When he arrives, perhaps he sees upon the very 

 table on which the weeping widow bows her head, a 

 piece of chalk, which, if given in time, would have 

 certainly prevented any mischief from the poison. 



Corrosive sublimate is the article generally used 

 to destroy the vermin which sometimes infest our 

 couches. A solution of it is laid upon the fioor in a 

 tea-cup, when the domestics go down to dine, leav- 

 ing the children up stairs at play ; the infant crawls 

 to the tea-cup, and drinks. Now, what think you 

 would be the mother's joy, if, having studied chem- 

 istry, she instantly called to recollection the well- 

 ascertained fact, that there is in the hen's nest an 

 antidote to this poison ? She sends for some eggs, 

 and, breaking them, administers the whites. Her 

 child recovers, and she weeps for joy. Talk to her 

 of novels : one little book of natural science has 

 been worth, to her, more than all the novels in the 

 world. 



Physicians in the country rarely carry scales with 

 them to weigh their prescriptions. They administer 

 medicines by guess, from a teaspoon or the point of 

 a knife. Suppose a common case : A physician 



leaves an over-dose of tartar- emetic, (generally the 

 first prescription in cases of bilious fever,) and pur- 

 sues his way to another patient, ten miles distant. 

 The medicine is duly administered, and the man is 

 poisoned. When the case becomes alarming, one 

 messenger is despatched for the doctor, and another 

 to call in the neighbors to see the suft'orerdie. Now, 

 there is, in a canister in the cupboard, and on a tree 

 that grows by the door, a remedy for this distress 

 and alarm — a sure means of saving the §ick man 

 from threatened death. A strong decoction of young 

 hyson tea, oak bark, or any other astringent vegeta- 

 ble, will change tartar-emetic into a harmless com- 

 pound. 



Vessels of copper often give rise to poisoning. 

 Though this metal undergoes but little change in a 

 dry atmosphere, it is rusted if moisture be present, 

 and its surface becomes covered with a green sub- 

 stance — carbonate or the protoxide of copper, a 

 poisonous compound. It has sometimes happened 

 that a mother has, for want of knowledge, poisoned 

 her family. Sour krout, when permitted to stand 

 for some time in a copper vessel, has produced death 

 in a few hours. Cooks sometimes permit pickles to 

 remain in copper vessels, that they may require a 

 rich green color, which they do by absorbing poison. 



Families have often been thrown into disease by 

 eating such dainties, and many have died, in sonic 

 instances without suspecting the cause. The lady 

 has certainly some reason to congratulate herself 

 upon her education, if, under such circumstances, 

 she knows that pickles rendered green by verdigris, 

 are poisonous, and that the white of an egg is an 

 antidote. 



Illustrations might be multiplied, but our space 

 forbids. Enough has been shown, we hope, to con- 

 vince the utilitarian that a knowledge of chemistry 

 is an important element in the education of the 

 female sex ; that without it they are imperfectly 

 qualified for the duties devolving upon them in the 

 domestic relation, and poorly prepared to meet its 

 emergencies. — Literary Gazette. 



To KEEP A Stove as bright as a Coach-body, 

 BY TWO Applications a Year. — Make a weak alum- 

 water, and mix your "British Lustre" with it, per- 

 haps two teaspoons to a gill of alum-water : let the 

 stove be cold, brush it with the mixture, then take a 

 dry brush and dry Ivistre, and rub the stove till it is 

 perfectly dry. Should any part, before polishing, 

 become so dry as to look gray, moisten it with a wet 

 brush, and proceed as before. 



Bows* lllfpartment. 



Tame Fishes. — A correspondent of the Boston 

 Journal, writing from Hingham, tells the following 

 singular story : — 



We found conveyances on the wharf in Hingham, 

 to take passengers to the hotels at the head of Nau- 

 tasket Beach, and to every other place. While 

 seated on the new-mown haj% under fine oaks and 

 elms over one hundred ycai's old, we felt satisfied 

 with our situation, comjiared with those whom wo 

 left frj'ing in Boston. We took the younger mem- 

 bers of the party to visit Wear liiver Iron Foundery, 

 and the pond near it, and Miss Thomas's pets — the 

 fish and turtle in it. This child of nine years has 

 fed these fish four years with bread. She was first 

 amused by throwing the crumbs into the water when 

 she ate her meals on the stones of the bank ; and see- 

 ing the fish dart for them, she took an interest in 

 the fish, and has fed them regularly since. Strange 

 as it may seem, they know her voice. On our 



