LADIES DEPARTMENT. 
379 
CaMcs JD apartment. 
CHEMISTRY FOR GIRLS. 
I take my pen in hand not to utter a disser- 
tation on female education, but to insist that 
young ladies be taught chemistry. They will 
thereby be better qualified to superintend do- 
mestic affairs, guard against many accidents to 
which households are subject, and perhaps be 
instrumental in saving life. I will illustrate the 
last remark by reference merely to toxicology. 
The strong acids, such as nitric, muriatic and 
sulphuric, are virulent poisons, yet frequently 
used in medicine and the mechanic arts. Sup- 
pose a child, in his rambles among the neigh- 
bors, enters a cabinet shop, and finds a saucer 
of aqua fortis, (nitric acid,) upon the workbench, 
and in his sport seizes and drinks 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 aggravated to 
know that in her medicine drawer was some 
calcined magnesia, which, if timely administer- 
ed, would have surely saved her lovely child, 
perchance her first and only boy ! O, what are 
the boquets and fine dress in the world to her, 
compared with such knowledge ? 
Take another case: A husband returning 
home, some summer afternoon, desires some 
acidulous drink. Opening a cupboard, he sees 
a small box labelled " salts of lemon," and mak- 
ing a solution of this, he drinks it freely. Pres- 
ently he feels distress, sends for his wife, and 
ascertaining that he has drunk a solution of ox- 
alic acid, which she has procured to take stains 
from linen. The physician is sent for; but the 
unavoidable delay attending his arrival, is fatal 
to the patient. The doctor arrives, and perhaps 
sees on the very table on which the widow 
bows her head, a piece of chalk, which, if it 
had been given in time, would have prevented 
any mischief from the poison. 
Corrosive sublimate is an article generally 
used by domestics to destroy the vermin which 
sometimes infest our couches. A solution of 
it is left upon the chamber floor in a teacup, 
when the domestics go to dinner 1< 3 " ing the 
children at play — the infant prf" .o the cup 
and drinks. Now what do T ' .xiink would be 
the mother's joy, if, having studied chemistry, 
she instantly called to recollection the well as- 
certained fact that there is in the hen's nest, an 
antidote to this poison! She sends for some 
eggs, and breaking them administers the white 
(albumen). Her child recovers, and she weeps 
for joy. Talk not 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, in a hurry, leaves an over- 
dose of tartar emetic, (generally the first pre- 
scription in cases of bilious fever,) and pursues 
his way to see another patient ten miles distant. 
The medicine is duly administered, and the man 
is poisoned. When the case becomes alarm- 
ing, one messenger is dispatched for the doctor, 
and another to call in the neighbors to see the 
sufferer die. Now here is, in the canister of 
your cupboard, and on a tree that grows by 
the door a remedy for this distress and alarm — 
a sure means of saving the sick man from the 
threatened death. A strong decoction of young- 
hyson tea, oak bark, or any stringent vegeta- 
ble, will change tartar emetic into an innocuous 
compound. — Selected. 
Washing Directions — From the Soap Man. — 
Calicos, and other goods not printed with fast 
colors, should be washed in a weak suds, using 
none but the best bar soap. Flannels and other 
woolen goods, after being well soaped, should 
be washed in cold water until quite free of suds. 
Never wring nor twist any woolen garment, to 
free it of water; but fold and gently press out 
all that will flow easy, and then hang it upon 
the line to drain and if necessary squeeze out 
the accumulating water from the lower edges 
once or twice. When dry or nearly so, shake, 
whip, or pull the article to expand it to its full 
size and prevent the natural tendency to full up 
which wool has. 
Milliners in London. — There are about 15,000 
milliners and dressmakers in London. A very 
large portion of these girls are boarded and 
lodged by their employers, and they often come 
from the country healthy and strong. During 
the busy season — that is, from April to August, 
and from October to Christmas — the regular 
hours of work at all the principal houses are, 
on an average, eighteen hours daily ! 
Cleansing or Renovating Brine. — To five 
gallons of brine, add one egg, broken and 
stirred in, and then bring to a gentle boiling 
and skim and cool for use. Saltpetre added to 
brine, at the rate of two to four ounces to the 
100 pounds of meat, gives it a fine, reddish 
color. A little brown sugar adds to the flavor 
of beef and pork, particularly for smoking, be- 
sides possessing an anteseptic quality. 
►©-• 
To Keep Door Knobs Clean. — Ladies are very 
fond of keeping the door knobs, spoons, plates, 
&c, in brilliant order. Now, if, instead of wat- 
er and chalk and such preparations, they will 
use camphene and rotten stone, a far brighter, 
quicker, and more durable polish will be attain- 
ed. — Exchange. 
To Remove White Spots from Furniture. 
— A warming pan of coals, or a shovel of 
coals, held over varnished furniture, will take 
out white spots. The place should be rubbed 
with flannel while warm. — Ibid. 
Curious Penalty of the Arabs. — The Arabs 
allow a man to divorce himself from a wife 
who does not make good bread. Were such a 
law in force in our country, half the young 
married ladies, we fear, would be in danger of 
fallin°; back into single blessedness. — Exchange. 
