2i8 The \^€st American Scientist. 



GREAT AGE OF FISHES. 



It is not generally known that there is hardly any limit to the 

 age of a fish. The late Prof. Baird, of the United States fish com- 

 mission, is the authority for the statement that there is authentic 

 evidence to show that carp have maintained an age of 200 years. 



There is a tradition that within fifty years a pike was living in 

 Russia whose age dated back to the fifteenth century. 



There are gold-fish in Washington that have belonged to one 

 family over fifty years. They do not appear much larger than 

 when they were originally placed in the aquarium, and are every 

 bit as lively as when young. 



The Russian Minister says that in the royal aquarium at St. 

 Petersburg there are fish to-day that have been known by the 

 records to have been in them 140 years. Some of them are, he 

 says, over five times as large as they were when first captured, 

 while some have not grown an inch. 



An attache of the Chinese legation says that there are sacred 

 fish kept in some of the palaces in China that are older than any 

 of those in Russia. — Fhiladelphia Pyess. 



A CURE FOR WOUNDS. 



The smoke of woolen rags is a cure for the most dangerous 

 wounds. A lady of my acquaintance ran a machine needle through 

 her finger. She could not be released till the machine was taken 

 to pieces. The needle had broken into her finger in three pieces, 

 one of which was bent almost double. After repeated trials the 

 pieces were extracted by pincers, but they were very strongly 

 imbedded. The pain reached the shoulder, and there was every 

 danger of lockjaw. The woolen rags were put over the coals, and 

 she held her finger over the smoke, and in a very short time all 

 the pain was gone and it never returned, though it was some little 

 time before the finger healed. This is but one of many instances 

 of such cure, some of them taking place after several days from 

 the time of the wound. Let woolen rags be kept sacredly and 

 always at hand for wounds. The smoke and stench will fill the 

 house, perhaps, but that is a trifle when the alternative is lockjaw, 

 or even a long, painful sequel to a wound. Another instance was 

 the wound made by an enraged cat, which tore the flesh from the 

 wrist to the elbow, and bit through the fleshy part of the hand. 

 One ministration of the smoke extracted all the pain, which had 

 been frightful. — Boston Trajiscript. 



A crank in Savannah, Missouri, shot at the woman who refused 

 him, but the ball was stopped by her bustle, made of old news- 

 papers, and she was uninjnred. Now is the time to subscribe. 



