Miscellaneous Intelligence. 29 



Effects of Fear. 



The Courier des Etats Unis gives the following account of 

 an experiment said to have been recently made at St. Peters- 

 burg : ' Six condemned criminals were placed in an hospital, 

 and confined in the same rooms which had been occupied by 

 sufferers from the cholera. This fact was unknown to them, 

 and they remained in good health for three weeks, making use 

 all the while of the beds which had been used by those who 

 died of that disease. Their sentence of death was then an- 

 nounced to them, with a promise of pardon, if they would enter 

 an hospital, which had been used for the cholera patients, 

 and should escape the malady. They asked nothing better, 

 and were conducted to a place where the cholera had never 

 been. In a kw days they were attacked from fear by the 

 cholera. Four of them died — only two survived.' 



Live Oak. 



It appears by a letter of Col. White of Florida, addressed 

 to the committee on Naval Affairs, that each acre of land 

 adapted to the cultivation of the live oak will bear twenty 

 trees, which, in fifty years from the time of planting, would 

 be fit for ship-building ; and worth ninety dollars each ; and 

 that the expense of superintendence during the whole period 

 of their growth, for a plantation of 6000 acres, would not ex- 

 ceed f 100,000. Little progress has been made in promoting 

 the cultivation of this timber on the lots which have already 

 been purchased ; nor have we seen any indication that any 

 measures of importance have been taken for this purpose by 

 the present secretary of the navy. — Advertiser. 



Method of preventing Iron and Steel from Rusting. 



This easy method consists in heating the steel or iron until 

 it burns the hand ; then rub it with virgin or pure white wax. 

 Warm it a second time so as to melt and divide off the wax, 

 and rub it with a piece of cloth or leather until it shines well. 

 This simple operation, by filling all the pores of the metal, 

 defends it completely from rust, even though it should be 

 exposed to moisture. — Jour, de Connois. Usuelles. 



