110 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
they will become too brittle, and cannot after- 
wards be handled without injury. About fifteen 
minutes will be sufficient to make them white 
and clean looking. Dry the specimens in white 
blotting- paper, beneath a gentle pressure. 
Simple leaves are the best for young beginners 
to experiment on ; the vine, poplar, beach and 
ivy leaves make excellent skeletons. Care must 
be exercised in the selection of leaves, as well as 
the period of the year and the state of the 
atmosphere when the specimens are collected ; 
otherwise, failure will be the result. The best 
months to gather the specimens are July and 
August. Never collect specimens in damp 
weather, and none but perfectly matured leaves 
ought to be selected. 

Inks for Rubber Stamps and Stencils. 
Black.— 'Ruh together one part of finest lamp- 
black and 2 parts of Prussian blue with a little 
glycerin, then add 1 part of powdered gum 
arable, and enough glycerin to form a thin 
paste. 
Carw me.— Dissolve 24 grains of carmine in 3 
fl. oz. of water of ammonia, then add 2 fl. 
drachms of glycerin. Incorporate with this i 
oz. of powdered gum arable. 
Blue.— Ruh together 6 parts of pure Prussian 
blue and 1 part oxalic acid with a little water, 
to a perfectly smooth paste. Let it stand in a 
rather warm place over night, then rub it with 
more water, and with 1 part of gum arable to a 
thin paste. 
Aniline Inks may be made of any desired shade 
in the same manner. The best way of using 
these inks is by applying them, by means of a 
small pad, uniformly to a little cushion, on 
which the stamps are then inked. 
The above formulae have been furnished to us 
by a correspondent, who says he has tested 
them by experience. Another set of formulae, 
also highly recommended, is the following : 
Black.— Finest lampblack, 10 parts ; powdered 
gum arable, 4 parts ; glycerin, 4 parts, water, 3 
parts. Dissolve the gum arable in the water, 
add the glycerin, then rub the lampblack with 
the mixture in a mortar. 
Cotoref?.— Replace the lampblack in the above 
formula by the appropriate color : chrome-yel- 
low for yelloiv ; red lead or red ochre for red ; 
green, ultramarine, or chrome-green for green ; 
indigo or Prussian blue, or blue ultramarine for 
hlue ; umber for broum, etc. 
Bemoving Metal Splinters from the Eye. 
The ragged chips and splinters which are 
separated during the processes, of turning and 
(•hipping off, often find their way into the eye. 
and are sometimes very difficult to remove. The 
use of magnets has been recommended, but even 
the strongest magnet is entirely inefficient, if : 
the splinters be imbedded. We have found a fine, . 
sharp knife the best instrument, but it requires 
skill and a steady hand. The best method is 
that which a London surgeon thus describes in 
the Lancet : "In consequence of the difficulty I 
experienced in removing from a patient a por- 
tion of steel deeply bedded in the cornea, which 
did not yield to spud or needle, some other 
means of removal became necessary. Dry, soft, 
white silk waste suggested itself to me, and was 
wound around a thin piece of wood, so as to 
completely envelop its end. This soft applica- 
tion was brushed once backwards and forwards 
horizontally over the part of the cornea where 
the foreign substance seemed fixed. To my 
astonishment it was at once entangled by the 
delicate but strong meshes of the silk, and was 
withdrawn with the greatest ease, caught by the 
same. A gentleman in turning steel at a lathe 
suddenly felt that a portion had entered his 
eye. He went at once to a surgeon, who with 
the most skilful manipulation failed to extract 
the same, saying it would soon work out of 
itself. The next morning the patient saw me, 
having suffered severely since the accident, and 
on the first application of the silk, the portion of 
steel was extracted." 
The Family Hammer. 
There is one thing no family pretends to do 
without. That is a hammer. And yet there is 
nothing that goes to make up the equipment of 
a domestic establishment that causes one-half 
as much agony and profanity as a hammer. It 
is always an old hammer, with a handle that is 
inclined to sliver, and always bound to slip. 
The face is as round as a full moon and as 
smooth as glass. When it strikes a nail full 
and square, which it has been known to do, the 
act will be found to result from a combination 
of pure accidents. 
The family hammer is one of those rare arti- 
cles we never profit by. When it glides off a 
nail head, and mashes down a couple of fingers, 
we unhesitatingly deposit it in the yard, and 
observe that we will never use it again. But 
the blood has hardly dried on the rag before we 
are out doors in search of that hammer, and 
ready to make another trial. The result rarely 
varies, but we never profit by it. The awful 
weapon goes on knocking off our nails, and 
mashing whole joints, and slipping off the han- 
dle to the confusion of mantel ornaments, and 
breaking the commandments, and cutting up 
an assortment of astounding and unfortunate 
